photo: Sara Barrett

Forrest Gander was born in Barstow, California, in 1956. He attended the College of William and Mary and received an M.A. from San Francisco State University. He holds degrees in both geology and literature.

Gander is the author of several collections of poetry, including Eye Against Eye (New Directions Press, 2005), Torn Awake (2001), Science & Steepleflower (1998), Deeds of Utmost Kindness (1994), Lynchburg (1993), and Rush to the Lake (1988).

He is the editor of Mouth to Mouth: 12 Contemporary Mexican Women Poets (1993), a bilingual anthology of contemporary Mexican poets, and the translator of No Shelter: The Selected Poems of Pura López Colomé. He also co-translated Immanent Visitor: The Selected Poems of Jaime Saenz with Kent Johnson.

Gander edits Lost Roads Publishers with poet C.D. Wright. His essays on poetry and poetics have appeared in many national magazines including The Nation, The Boston Review, and The Providence Journal. A collection of essays, A Faithful Existence, was published in 2005.

"Forrest Gander is a Southern poet of a relatively rare kind, a restlessly experimental writer," wrote poet Robert Hass.

Gander's honors include a Whiting Award, two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative North American Writing, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Yaddo. Gander is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Brown University. He keeps a small orchard outside of Providence, Rhode Island.