Christopher Merrill

Christopher Merrill is the recipient of the 2025 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature for his extraordinary work as an advocate of international literature who has advanced its reach in the anglophone world through cultural diplomacy and by uplifting international writers. He has published six collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of nonfiction, among them, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain, and Self-Portrait with Dogwood. His writings have been translated into nearly forty languages; his journalism appears widely; and his honors include a Chevalier from the French government in the Order of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill Foundations. He has served on the U.S. National Com-mission for UNESCO and the National Council on the Humanities; as director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, he has undertaken cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries.