Michel Delville is a poet, essayist and musician born in Liège, Belgium. He is the author of a number of essay collections, including The American Prose Poem and Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Secret History of Maximalism (with Andrew Norris) and a collection of poetry, Third Body. He teaches literature at the University of Liège, where he directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Poetics. His awards as a writer and essayist include the SAMLA Book Award, the Choice Outstanding Book Award, the Léon Guérin Prize and the 2001 Alumni Award of the Belgian–American Educational Foundation. As a musician, he has recorded and toured extensively with various bands such as The Wrong Object and Alex Maguire Sextet, as well as high–profile jazz and rock musicians including Elton Dean, Harry Beckett, Annie Whitehead and Ed Mann.