Ben W. Howard[1] (born 1944 in Iowa[2]), Emeritus Professor of English at Alfred University, is an American poet, essayist, scholar, and critic.
Reviewing Firewood and Ashes: New and Selected Poems in Poetry Northwest (December 17, 2015), Adam Tavel observes that this collection "displays the poet's lyrical sonorousness, formal mastery, and spiritual inquisitiveness ... His poems are notable and noble in their craft, heart, and panoramic gaze.
For a half-century now, he has written poems with one foot in the Romantic tradition and the other firmly planted in our modern predicament ... One hopes this representative gathering of poems old and recent will allow a new generation of readers to discover Ben Howard's lush wisdom—a wisdom rooted in the poetic tradition and attuned to our fraught young century."
In his review of Leaf, Sunlight, Asphalt, Howard's fifth collection of poems, Ray Olson observes that the author "manages iambs as well as anyone since Christopher Marlowe ... Few other contemporary poets make ordinary living seem as rich and rewarding."
It's as seductive of the inner ear as Irish storytelling is of the outer, gently drawing attention to large, subtle meanings."