Writers' Bios: An Editor's View

Editor of the literary mag River Styx for 15 years, poet Richard Newman (most recent book: Domestic Fugues) probably wouldn't mind being quoted on what he said when I asked him about bios yesterday. The bios in River Styx are almost uniformly three- or four-liners, and the editors keep them that way by trimming. Richard said, "The really famous poets have one or two sentences. Those bios will say ' Famous Poet is the author of 15 books of poetry,' and leave it at that. It's the nobodies who send us long bios that include every little fart. . ."