Marvin Bell's American reputation rests on fourteen distinguished books of poetry and essays, noted by reviewers for their originality, lucidity, variety, and eloquence. His writing has been called "ambitious without pretension", and he himself has been referred to as "an insider who thinks like an outsider".

Wednesday is the first book by Marvin Bell to be published outside the United States.

"Marvin Bell may have the most refined ear of his free verse contemporaries. He is that rare poet who can hear speech as it was meant to be written."
Stanley Plumly

"...one of the very few to claim our enduring respect and attention."
J.D. McClatchy

Marvin Bell was born in New York City, grew up on rural Long Island, and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, and Port Townsend, Washington. He is a longtime faculty member of the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, where he is Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters. Literary honours include awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.