Daniel Mark Epstein

Daniel Mark Epstein (born 25 October 1948 in Washington, D.C.) is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer.

Life
Epxtein was born in Washington, D.C.. He earned his B.A. from Kenyon College.

Epstein has written biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Bob Dylan, Walt Whitman, Nat King Cole, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Aimee Semple McPherson. He has published eight volumes of poetry, including No Vacancies in Hell (1973), Young Men's Gold (1978), The Book of Fortune (1982), Spirits (1987), The Traveler's Calendar (2002), and "The Glass House" (2009) as well as a book of stories, Star of Wonder (1986) and the memoir Love's Compass (1990).

His poetry has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, The Paris Review, Poetry Magazine, The Hudson Review, and many other magazines. His plays, which have been produced off-Broadway and in regional theaters, include Jenny and the Phoenix, The Midnight Visitor, and The Leading Lady.

In 2005, Epstein wrote the libretto for Jefferson & Poe: A Lyric Opera in Two Acts--music by Damon Ferrante.

Writing
In a February 29, 2002, review in Booklists of Epstein's book of poetry The Traveler's Calendar, (February 29, 2002) the reviewer wrote: "Biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson, Nat 'King' Cole, and Edna St. Vincent Millay have won Epstein greater renown, but his best writing is his mythically and historically haunted poetry.... Epstein's new work ...e xpresses the sorrows of the middle of life's journey with near-Dantesque poignancy."

Recognition
Epstein has been awarded an NEA Poetry Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Prix de Rome (1977), the Robert Frost Prize, the Emily Clark Balch Prize from the Virginia Quarterly, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006.