Forrest Gander, American poet, (b. 1956) is the author of various books of poetry, essays, and work in translation.
Life
Born in the Mojave Desert in 1956, he was raised in Virginia where he attended
The College of William and Mary, majoring in geology, a subject referenced frequently in both his poems and essays. He received an M.A. in English from
San Francisco State University and moved to Mexico, where he began to assemble work for
Mouth to Mouth: Poems by Twelve Contemporary Mexican Women, a bilingual anthology. Gander is the recipient of honors including: The
Whiting Writers' Award, a Howard Foundation Award, two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative North American Writing, and fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts and
Yaddo. He is Professor of English and Comparative Literatures at
Brown University in Rhode Island.
Writing
His poetry is lyrical, but often complex rhythmically and structurally. Critic Karla Huston, writing in "Library Journal," notes that, "Owing to the poems' placement on the page and the near absence of punctuation, the reader is propelled through the verse, left with a sense of urgency and awe." Because of the frequency and particularity of Gander's references to the Virginia landscape,
Robert Hass, former U.S.
Poet Laureate, calls him "a Southern poet of a relatively rare kind, a restlessly experimental writer."
More on
[ Forrest Gander ]
Forrest Gander Biography - Short biography of poet Forrest Gander.
Silence - Text of the poem.