Christopher Merrill (born February 24, 1957) is an American poet, essayist, journalist and translator.

He did his undergraduate work at Middlebury College and his graduate degree at the University of Washington.

He has published six collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Peter I.

For 10 years he was the book critic for the daily radio news program The World.

He held the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross before becoming the director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2000.