Christopher Merrill is the author of four collections of poems and four books of nonfiction, including Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain. He was a long-time book critic for Public Radio International's "The World." He currently directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and travels widely. 

"Christopher Merrill is one of the most gifted, audacious, and accomplished poets of an extraordinarily rich generation. His range of sympathy, subject, and tone has always been prodigious." —W.S. Merwin