Strand, Mark, 1934–, American poet, b. Prince Edward Island, Canada. His poetry is noted for its confrontation with the surreal and irrational. His collections include Sleeping with One Eye Open (1964), Darker (1970), Selected Poems (1980), and Blizzard of One (1998; Pulitzer Prize). He has published a novel, Mr. and Mrs. Baby (1985), and has edited several distinguished poetry anthologies, including The Contemporary American Poets (1969) and Another Republic (1976). He was poet laureate of the United States (1990–91).

Strand, Mark

(born April 11, 1934, Summerside, P.E.I., Can.) Canadian-born U.S. poet and writer of short fiction. Educated in the U.S., he taught at several American universities. His poetry, influenced by Latin American surrealism and European writers such as Franz Kafka, is known for its symbolic imagery and its minimalist sensibility. His volumes include the collections Sleeping with One Eye Open (1964), The Story of Our Lives (1973), and Blizzard of One (1998); Dark Harbor (1993), a book-length poem; and Mr. and Mrs. Baby and Other Stories (1985). He was named U.S. poet laureate in 1990.

Strand, Mark (1934– ) poet, writer; born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His family moved to the United States (1938), and he attended Antioch (B.A. 1957), Yale (B.F.A. 1959), and the University of Iowa (M.A. 1962). He taught at many institutions, notably the University of Utah (1981), received a MacArthur Foundation Grant (1987), and was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress (1990). He wrote fiction, criticism, and children's books, and worked as a translator and editor. He is best known, however, for his lyric poetry, as in Selected Poems (1980).