Paul Mariani was born in New York City in 1940 and began his childhood in Long Island. He was the oldest of his seven brothers and sisters from a middle working-class background. Mariani had received his bachelor's degree from Manhattan College, New York and a Master's Degree from Colgate University. In addition to his collection, he earned a Ph.D. from NYC University. Mariani and his wife, Eileen, have three sons and live in western Massachusetts. …showed first 75 words of 379 total…

…showed last 75 words of 379 total…Book Award, and was also named a New York Times Notable Book of the year. He is currently at work on a biography of Gerard Manley Hopkins. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught from 1968 until 2000, and currently holds a Chair in Poetry at Boston College.