Mark Strand

(1934 - 2014)

After studying painting at Yale University with Josef Albers, Mark Strand decided to become a poet, earning his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1962. In 1990 he became the U.S. poet laureate but did not consider the appointment to be a great achievement. “It’s too close to the government,” he said. “It’s too official. I don’t believe that poetry should be official.”