Robert Bly Biography

Robert Bly is the author of more than 30 books of poetry, including Loving a Woman in Two Worlds (1987) and The Light Around the Body (1967), which won the National Book Award. His poems have been praised for the way they bring together an external landscape and an internal, spiritual one, and for his ability to convey complicated, multi-layered ideas in simple language.

He has also worked extensively as an editor and translator (notably of Pablo Neruda and Cesar Vallejo), bringing many foreign poets to the attention of the American public. His nonfiction book, Iron John: A Book About Men became an international bestseller after its publication in 1990, and was celebrated for its in-depth exploration of the male psyche.