Marvin Bell is the author of 18 volumes of poetry and essays. His honors include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and Senior Fulbright appointments to Yugoslavia and Australia. He is a long-time member of the faculty of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he is the Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters. He has twice been named Poet Laureate of the state of Iowa.