Although Mark Strand was born in Summer-side, Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1934, he moved with his family to the United States at the age of four and spent most of his childhood in New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. As a teenager, he lived in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, most of the traveling due to his father's business in sales. His first education interest was in the visual arts, and he studied painting at Yale after completing his bachelor's degree atAntioch College in Ohio. During this time, he also became interested in writing and turned his attention full time to poetry and short fiction, eventually completing a Master of Fine Arts degree in the writer's workshop at the University ofIowa. Strand never lost his desire to paint and to study art and has published several articles and books on art criticism. He has written nine books of...