W.S. Merwin

W.S. Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and grew up in Union City, New Jersey, and in Scranton, Pennsylvania. From 1949 to 1951 he worked as a tutor in France, Portugal, and Majorca. He has since lived in many parts of the world, most recently on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. He is the author of many books of poems, prose, and translations and has received both the Pulitzer and the Bollingen Prizes for poetry, among numerous other awards.

From the Review

April 30, 2009: Why Some People Do Not Read Poetry* (poem)

June 12, 2008: To the Happy Few* (poem)

February 14, 2008: The Odds* (poem)

July 19, 2007: A Codex* (poem)

March 23, 2006: Dishonor in Hawaii*

Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i by David E. Stannard

September 22, 2005: Traces* (poem)

June 9, 2005: In Love and War*

Rules for Old Men Waiting by Peter Pouncey

January 13, 2005: Gray Herons in the Field above the River* (poem)

May 27, 2004: Name in the Sand*

April 8, 2004: You Can Take It With You*

The Dominion of the Dead by Robert Pogue Harrison

February 13, 2003: Noble Shadow*

Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours by Fredric L. Cheyette

October 10, 2002: In Bed with Gawain*

June 13, 2002: Echoes of Rumi*

May 9, 2002: The Impossible Blue Butterfly*

Darlington's Fall by Brad Leithauser

March 28, 2002: Transit* (poem)

April 12, 2001: To My Father's Houses* (poem)

March 8, 2001: To the Present Visitors* (poem)

June 15, 2000: Usage* (poem)

March 9, 2000: Through a Glass* (poem)

October 7, 1999: The Summer* (poem)

January 14, 1999: Plan for the Death of Ted Hughes* (poem)

December 3, 1998: Footprints of a Shadow*

Fernando Pessoa: A Centenary Pessoa edited by Eugénio Lisboa, with L.C. Taylor

Poems of Fernando Pessoa translated and edited by Edwin Honig, by Susan M. Brown

Fernando Pessoa & Co.:Selected Poems edited and translated by Richard Zenith

Always Astonished: Selected Prose by Fernando Pessoa edited, translated, and introduced by Edwin Honig

The Keeper of Sheep by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Edwin Honig, by Susan M. Brown

An Introduction to Fernando Pessoa: Modernism and the Paradoxes of Authorship by Darlene J. Sadlier

The Presence of Pessoa:English, American, and South American Literary Responses by George Monteiro

October 22, 1998: Two Poems* (poem)

October 6, 1994: Ancestral Voices* (poem)

August 11, 1994: 'Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang'

Birds in Literature by Leonard Lutwack

April 22, 1993: One of the Lives (poem)

November 29, 1973: Three Poems* (poem)

January 25, 1973: Six Poems of Osip Mandelstamm* (poem)

April 20, 1972: Two Mayan Poems* (poem)

April 20, 1972: A Sight of the Bright Life*

The Book of Counsel: The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala translated and with an Introduction by Munro S. Edmonson

January 27, 1972: 3 Poems by Osip Mandelstam* (poem)

July 1, 1971: Saying No (letter)

June 3, 1971: On Being Awarded the Pulitzer Prize*

December 3, 1970: I Don't Know for Certain…* (poem)

November 19, 1970: On Being Loyal*

February 12, 1970: Shine On, Tottering Republic*

August 21, 1969: Death of the Ferret* (poem)

October 10, 1968: Three Poems by Iosip Brodsky* (poem)

July 7, 1966: The Room* (poem)

March 17, 1966: A Poet in Exile*

Collected Poems by Edwin Muir

June 17, 1965: A Debt* (poem)

From New York Review Books

The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes
The world's first picaresque novel and an inspiration for many writers, including Cervantes.
Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam
Osip Mandelstam is a central figure not only in modern Russian but in world poetry, the author of some of the most haunting and memorable poems of the twentieth century.
In Parenthesis
"This writing has to do with some things I saw, felt, and was part of": with quiet modesty, David Jones introduces one of the grandest imaginative efforts to grapple with World War I.

Books by W.S. Merwin

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation (2002)
The River Sound: Poems (1999)
East Window: The Asian Translations (1998)
The Folding Cliffs: A Narrative (1998)
Flower & Hand: Poems 1977-1983 (1997)
The Vixen: Poems (1996)
The Second Four Books of Poems (1993)
Travels: Poems (1993)
The Lost Upland (1992)
Selected Poems (1988)
The Rain in the Trees: Poems (1988)
Regions of Memory: Uncollected Prose, 1949-82 (1987)
Opening the Hand: Poems (1983)
Unframed Original (1982)
Selected Translations, 1968-1978 (1979)
The Compass Flower: Poems (1977)
Houses and Travellers: [prose] (1977)
The First Four Books of Poems (1975)
Asian Figure (1973)
Selected Translations, 1948-196 (1968)