Known for works such as Cairo Traffic, These People, and Goodnight, Gracie, this American poet also had a successful career as a literary and arts critic, earning a 1994 Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to The Boston Phoenix.
In 1962, he earned his bachelor's degree from Queens College, City University of New York. A decade and a half later, he received his doctorate from Harvard University.
An actor as well as a writer, he appeared in stage productions of The Cherry Orchard, Measure for Measure, and Alice in Wonderland. He also portrayed Scrooge on a radio program called The Spider's Web and in a film titled The Drones Must Die.
He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and later settled in Boston, where he taught English at the University of Massachusetts.
He edited several editions of the work of Massachusetts-born poet Elizabeth Bishop.