Born of Russian Jewish parents, the poet Howard Nemerov won a host of prizes - including the Pulitzer and Bollingen Prizes - during a long and distinguished career at the top table of America's poetry circuit.
A life-long practitioner of formalist poetry, which advocates traditional forms of verse with respect to meter, Nemerov served in the US Air Force in the Second World War and taught English at several universities, including Washington University in St Louis, alongside publishing several collections of poetry up until his death in 1991.
Having served as Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress twice and with the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award established in 1994 in an effort to promote poetry writing, Nemerov's influence on American poetry is undeniable. Although some of his poetry is for some people like marmite, in that they love it or loathe it, the fact his work is still debated shows us that it is worth reading and reflecting over.
