Biography

William Marr was born in 1936 and educated in Taiwan. He came to the United States in 1961 and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University in 1963 and his PhD degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. After twenty seven years with Argonne National Laboratory, he retired from his engineering profession in 1996 to devote his full time and energy to his true passion -- art and poetry.

Dr. Marr has published more than one hundred technical articles, ranging from nuclear reactor safety to electric hybrid vehicle development. He has also published in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Hong Kong, thirteen volumes of poetry and one book of essays, all written in his native Chinese language under the pen name Fei Ma, and several books of translations of contemporary American and European poetry. His first book of poems in English, Autumn Window, published by Arbor Hill Press in 1995 (with second edition in 1996) was greeted with critical acclaim and he was hailed as one of the collectible Chicago poets. His poems appear in over one hundred anthologies -- including 300 Best New Poems 1917- 1995, published in Taiwan, and 300 Best Chinese New Poems, published in Mainland China -- and are included in high school and college textbooks of Chinese Literature in Taiwan and Mainland China. Some of his poems have been translated into other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Slavic and Romanian. He has also edited and published several anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese modern poetry.

Considered one of the world's best contemporary poets writing in Chinese, Dr. Marr's poetry has enjoyed wide readership in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Mainland China, and North America. He has received numerous awards, including three from Taiwan for his poetry and translations. He has served in the capacity of editorial advisor and poetry contest judge to several prominent Chinese poetry journals and online poetry forums on the Internet.

In addition to his writing and translation, Dr. Marr also pursues other artistic interests including painting and sculpting. He has held several solo and group art exhibitions in the Chicago area over the years. Recently he was invited to participate in an art show during the 2008 Olympics at an art museum in Beijing.

A past president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and a member of the Poets Club of Chicago, Dr. Marr and his wife, Jane, also an Argonne scientist, live in the suburb of Chicago. They have two sons, Dennis and Alvin.