William Benton (writer)
William Benton is an American poet and novelist.Life
Born in 1939 in Houston, Texas, he grew up in a small town on Galveston Bay. He received his early training in music and worked as a jazz piano player before becoming a writer. In the mid-1960s he moved to New York City, where he edited riverrun magazine and press. He is not associated with a specific school of poetry, although Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, as well as the Black Mountain School, influence his work. In 1970 he was hired as assistant dean of Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, where he remained as acting dean for three years. He has read and lectured at various universities. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other magazines. James Salter described his novel, Madly, as "Beautiful, intense, and utterly absorbing." He currently lives in New York City.Published works
