Poetry. Marvin Bell, one of America's most influential, visible, and inventive poets, likes "ideas to have a little dirt on their shoes." His wildly original and often gritty curiosity finds inspiration in wide-ranging locales, and even wider topics. He will take on any subject in his poetry, and the conclusion of RAMPANT is a ten-part suite, "Journal of the Posthumous Present," which was commissioned by the Getty Research Institute and published as a cover feature in The poem is remarkable for its original methods and socio-philosophic investigation, and points to the signature of Bell's career: his ability to radically examine the world through poetry.

Author City: Iowa City, IA USA

Marvin Bell has published seventeen books of poetry and has received numerous honors, including the Lamont Award and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia. He taught for forty years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and was the first State Poet of Iowa. He lives in Iowa and Washington.