Since 2006 he has taught creative writing and literary translation at the University of Arkansas, where he is Distinguished Professor of English.
Born in Atlanta, he grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and as an adult he has lived in Philadelphia, Gainesville (Florida), Washington DC, San Francisco, Tucson, Dallas, London, England, and Florence, Italy.
[4] Brock is the author of three books of poetry, the translator of numerous volumes of poetry, prose, and comics, mostly from Italian, and the editor of The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry, which reviewers called "a beautiful, superbly edited anthology"[5] and "so thoughtfully conceived that the experience of reading [it] feels like the experience of reading an intricate novel.
In 2005, his first book of poems, Weighing Light, won the New Criterion Poetry Prize, judged by David Yezzi, A.E.
In 2014, his second book of poems, Voices Bright Flags, received the Anthony Hecht Prize, judged by Heather McHugh.