William Marr

William W. Marr (simplified Chinese: 马为义; traditional Chinese: 馬為義; born September 3, 1936) is a retired engineering researcher and poet.

Engineering research career

Marr was born in Taiwan and grew up in a small village in Guangdong, China. He was educated in Taiwan and came to the United States in 1961 as an engineering student. After receiving his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University in 1963, he worked for Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. in Milwaukee, developing safety and control systems for nuclear power plants. He entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1967 and received his PhD degree in nuclear engineering two years later. In 1969, he joined Argonne National Laboratory as a researcher, working in the area of energy and environmental systems, including Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor safety research, and electric hybrid vehicle development. More than one hundred technical reports and articles had been published before his early retirement in 1996.

Poet and translator

Besides his career in engineering research, Marr has devoted most of his leisure time to the translation and writing of modern poetry. Over the years, he has published nineteen books of poems in his native Chinese language, all under the pen name Fei Ma (simplified Chinese: 非马; traditional Chinese: 非馬), and several books of translations. He published his first book of poems in English, Autumn Window, in 1995. The book was very well received. The Chicago Tribune and several local newspapers carried favorable reviews and he was hailed by one of the Chicago critics as one of the collectible Chicago poets. Regarded as one of the leading contemporary Chinese-language poets, his poems are included in over one hundred anthologies, ranging from literary textbooks to special collections and have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also edited several anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese modern poetry and has received several awards from Taiwan for his poetry translation and writing. He is a former president of the Illinois State Poetry Society.

Artist

Since 1990, he has engaged in artistic activities such as painting and sculpting, and has held several solo and group art exhibitions in art galleries and public libraries in the Chicago area. In 2006, some of his paintings were displayed on PublicBoard.com, a Website devoted to art and literature, for the celebration of the Chinese New Year. During the 2008 Olympics, he was invited to participate in an art show at an art museum in Beijing.

Publications in Chinese

 
(published under the Pseudonym Fei Ma)
  • In the Windy City, Chinese/English, Li Poetry Society, Taipei, Taiwan, 1975
  • Selected Poems of William Marr, Taiwan Commercial Press, Taipei, Taiwan, 1983
  • The White Horce, Times Publishing Company, Taipei, Taiwan, 1984
  • Anthology of Fei Ma's Poetry, Joint Publishing, Hong Kong, 1984
  • The Resounding Echos of Hoof Beats, Li Poetry Society, Taipei, Taiwan, 1986
  • Road, Elite Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, 1986
  • Anthology of Short Poems by Fei Ma, Strait Art Publishing House, Fuzhou, China, 1990
  • Fly! Spirit, Morning Star Publishing Co., Taichung, Taiwan, 1992
  • Anthology of Self-selected poems by Fei Ma, Guizhou People's Press, 1993
  • The Microscopic World, Taichung Cultural Center, Taichung, Taiwan, 1998
  • The Poetic Art of Fei Ma, Writers Publishing House, Beijing, China, 1999
  • Not All Flowers Need to Bear Fruits, Bookman Books Co., Taipei, Taiwan, 2000
  • Poems of Fei Ma, Flower City Publishing House, Guangzhou, China, 2000
  • Selected Poems of William Marr, The Milkyway Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 2003
  • Anthology of Poems by Fei Ma, National Museum of Taiwan Literature, Tainan, Taiwan, 2009
  • You Are the Wind, Anthology of Fei Ma's Poetry, Vol. 1 (1950-1979), Showwe, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011
  • Dream Design, Anthology of Fei Ma's Poetry, Vol. 2 (1980-1989), Showwe, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011
  • The World of Grasshoppers, Anthology of Fei Ma's Poetry, Vol. 3 (1990-1999), Showwe, Taipei, Taiwan, 2012
  • The Sunshine Scarf, Anthology of Fei Ma's Poetry, Vol. 4 (2000-2012), Showwe, Taipei, Taiwan, 2012

Publications in English, French and Italian
  • Autumn Window, anthology of English poems, Arbor Hill Press, Chicago, 1995; 2nd Edition, 1996
  • Let the Feast Begin—My Favorite English Poems, English/Chinese, Bookman Publishing Co., Taipei, 1999
  • Selected Poems of William Marr, Chinese/English, The World Contemporary Poetry Series, The Milky Way Publishing Co., Hong Kong, 2003
  • Between Heaven and Earth, selected poems in English, PublishAmerica, Baltimore, 2010
  • CHANSONS, translation of selected poems by Pai Chiu, Chinese/English, Giant Publishing Co., Taipei, 1972; Rock Publisher, Taipei, 1991
  • CHANSONS POUR TOI ET MOI, Chinese/French, (French translator: Athanase Vantchev de Thracy), The Cultural Institute of Solenza, Paris, 2014
  • Chicago Serenade, Chinese/English/French, (French translator: Athanase Vantchev de Thracy), The Cultural Institute of Solenza, Paris, 2015
  • SONGS OF MY OWN, translation of Poems by Li Qing-Song, Chinese/English, Writers Publishing House, Beijing, 2015
  • SUMMER SONGS, English translation of poems by Lin Ming-Li, Chinese/English/French, The Cultural Institute of Solenza, Paris, 2015
  • Cézanne's Still Life and Other Poems, English/Italian, (Italian translator: Giovanni Campisi),Edizioni Universum, Trento, Italy, 2018
  • Portrait and Other Poems, English/Italian, (Italian translator: Giovanni Campisi), Edizioni Universum, Trento, Italy, 2019

References
  • International Who's Who in Poetry 1974-75 (Fourth Edition, Ernest Kay Editor, Cambridge and London, England), 1974; 2003; 2005
  • The Isle Full of Noises, Ed. Dominic Cheung, Columbia University Press, New York, 1987
  • The Voice of the Poet, Chicago Tribune (Tempo Dupage), 1996.2.25
  • The Nuclear Poet, Downers Grove Reporter, 1996.4.19
  • Going 60 in Chicago—60 Years of Poetry from The Poets Club of Chicago,ISBN 1-887312-04-8.
  • International Who's Who in Poetry and Poets' Encyclopaedia, 9th Edition.; 2003
  • International Authors and Writers Who's Who—16th Edition,1999; 17th Edition, 2001;2003;2005
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