Peter Makuck taught at East Carolina University from 1976-2006. Founder of the Tar River Poetry and its editor for almost thirty years, he was the English department's first Distinguished Professor. In 2008 he was the Lee Smith Visiting Poet at North Carolina State University. His stories, poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The Hudson Review, The Sewanne Review, and The Georgia Review. In addition to four previous volumes of poems, four poetry chapbooks, and two collections of short stories, he has co-edited a book of essays, An Open World, on the Welsh poet Leslie Norris. His most recent collection of short stories Costly Habits (University of Missouri Press) was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner award. Former Fulbright Exchange Professor to France, winner of the Brockman Award (given annually for the best collection of poetry by a North Carolinian), recipient of the Charity Randall Citation from the International Poetry Forum, and juror for the annual Poet's Prize, he lives with his wife Phyllis on Bogue Banks, one of North Carolina's barrier islands.
