Born in 1939, Melvin Wilk grew up in Brooklyn, New York; attended The High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and Queen’s College; and received a BA from the University of Montana. He earned an MA in English from Boston University, an MA in Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He taught at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa for 28 years and was awarded the prestigious Professor of the Year award the year he retired. He has published a book of poetry, In Exile (Bookmark Press, University of Missouri), and a scholarly book, The Jewish Presence in T.S. Eliot and Franz Kafka (Brown University). He published many poems in several different journals, including The New Yorker and Poetry. He and his wife of 45 years raised three children. He died in 2012.