Ed Ochester

Who is Ed Ochester?

Edwin Frank Ochester is an American poet and editor.

Born September 15 in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Currently he is a core faculty member of the Bennington College MFA Writing Seminars. For nearly twenty years Ochester served as director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, and he was twice elected president of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. From 1967 to 1970 he was assistant professor of English at University of Florida, Gainesville.

Since 1979 he has served as general editor of the Pitt Poetry Series, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. It is one of the largest and best known lists of contemporary American poetry by any publisher. He is also general editor of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction.

Poets published by Ochester in the Pitt Series include Sharon Olds, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Lawrence Joseph, Richard Shelton, Larry Levis, Denise Duhamel, Lynn Emanuel, Bob Hicok, Jim Daniels, Gary Soto, Stuart Dybek, Kathleen Norris, Alicia Ostriker, Toi Derricotte, Dean Young, and David Wojahn.

His book Dancing on the Edges of Knives won the 1973 Devins Award for Poetry, and he has won fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.