James Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1943. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Memoir of the Hawk (Ecco Press, 2001); Shroud of the Gnome (1997); Worshipful Company of Fletchers (1994), which won the National Book Award; Selected Poems (1991), which won the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award; Distance from Loved Ones (1990); Reckoner (1986); Constant Defender (1983); Riven Doggeries (1979); Viper Jazz (1976); Absences (1972); Hints to Pilgrims (1971); The Oblivion Ha-Ha (1970); and The Lost Pilot (1967), which was selected by Dudley Fitts for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He has also published a novel, Lucky Darryl (1977), and a collection of short stories, Hottentot Ossuary (1974), and edited The Best American Poetry 1997. His honors include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and is currently a chancellor of The Academy of American Poets.

Author information from The Academy of American Poets

The Academy of American Poets, Poetry Exhibits, James Tate

Dana Gioia Online, "James Tate and American Surrealism"

Cross-X-Connect, "Interview with James Tate"

The Cortland Review, Michael Brooks Cryer, "Michael Brooks Cryer Reviews Memoir of the Hawk by James Tate"

American Poems, Biography and Poems by James Tate