Dan Howell's kin came to Kentucky in 1784, before it became a state, settling in what was then Fayette County, Virginia. His collection of poems, Lost Country (Massachusetts), was the runner-up for the Norma Farber First Book Award of the Poetry Society of America, and short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. Other awards include a Writing Fellowship (Poetry) at the Fine ArtsWork Center in Provincetown, the Tom McAfee Discovery Award (Missouri Review), and a citation for Notable Essay in Best American Essays 1993. A chapbook of poems, Whatever Light Used to Be (Workhorse) was published in 2018. Currently he lives and teaches in Lexington, Kentucky, back in his hometown after decades elsewhere.
