Among those poets of the American South whose careers began in the 1960s and who achieved national recognition in the 1970s and 1980s, Miller Williams is the most gifted and has compiled the most significant body of work. His prodigious literary output has resulted not only in nine collections of poetry but in fifteen additional books he has authored, edited, or translated. Williams's poetry exhibits a remarkable consistency of vision and voice throughout his career. Unlike the majority of poets of his generation, who seem to have written their strongest and most memorable work before the age of forty-five, Williams has grown from book to book. The result of this long and steady artistic development is a mature and informed art that is being written by a major poet only now reaching the height of his powers.

Miller Williams was born on 8 April 1930 in Hoxie, Arkansas, and was...