Merrill Daniel Gilfillan (born 14 May 1945) is an American writer of poetry, short fiction, and essays.
Life and work Gilfillan was born and raised in Mount Gilead, Ohio, where his outdoorsman father (Merrill C. Gilfillan) worked as a naturalist for the state's Department of Natural Resources and helped inspire an early fascination with the natural world and its creatures. Gilfillan graduated in 1967 from the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop for two years, studying with Ted Berrigan, Anselm Hollo, and George Starbuck, among others. He lived and worked in New York City for eight years and then moved to Colorado, which served as a base for frequent expeditions to the Great Plains and other regions of America from which he reports in essays, poetry, and short stories. He now lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Books Poetry Truck, Angel Hair Books, New York, 1970 9:15, Doones Press, Bowling Green, OH, 1970 Skyliner, Blue Wind Press, Berkeley, 1974 To Creature, Blue Wind Press, Berkeley, 1975 Light Years: Selected Early Poems, Blue Wind Press, Berkeley, 1977 River through Rivertown, The Figures, Great Barrington, MA, 1982 Coppers and Blues, Plum Pit, Boulder, 1997 On Heart River, Dayo, Denver, 1995 Satin Street, Moyer Bell, Wakefield, RI, 1997 The Seasons, Adventures in Poetry, New York | Boston, 2002 Small Weathers, Qua Books, Jamestown, RI, 2004 Undanceable, Flood Editions, Chicago, 2005 Selected Poems 1965-2000, Adventures in Poetry, New York & Boston 2005 The Bark of the Dog, Flood Editions, Chicago, 2010 Harpsichord Hills, Horse Less Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2013 Red Mavis, Flood Editions, Chicago 2014 Would-be Dogwood, Shirt Pocket Press Grand Rapids, MI, 2017 Old River, New River, Red Dragonfly Press, Northfield, MN, 2019 Three Roans in the Shallows, One of Them Blue: Selected Poems], Flood Editions, Chicago, 2014
Essays Magpie Rising: Sketches from the Great Plains, Pruett | Vintage | Bison, 1988 | 1990 | 2003 Burnt House to Paw Paw: Appalachian Notes, Hard Press, West Stockbridge, MA, 1997 Chokecherry Places: Essays from the High Plains, Johnson Books, Boulder, 1998 Rivers & Birds, Johnson Books, Boulder, 2003 The Warbler Road, Flood Editions, Chicago, 2010 Fiction Sworn Before Cranes, Crown, New York, 1994 Grasshopper Falls, Hanging Loose, Brooklyn, 2000 Talk Across Water, Flood Editions, Chicago, 2019 Drawings Distant Rivers, Prairie Rose Press, Muscatine, IA, 2013
Interviews Chicago Review, Winter, 2013 L’Art du paysage, vol. 7, "Motifs du Paysage Nord-American," Vincent Dussol, Paris, 2014 The Believer, "An Interview with Merrill Gilfillan", Martin Riker, April 18, 2019
Awards 1967, Major Hopwood Award for poetry, University of Michigan 1989, PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction for Magpie Rising 1998, Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction for Chokecherry Places
References