Daniel Halpern was born on September 11, 1945 in Syracuse, New York. He received a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1972. He has been an instructor in poetry at Princeton University, New School of Social Research, and Columbia University. He began working at Ecco Press in New York City in 1969, and later became editor-in-chief. He has written several collections of poetry including Traveling on Credit, Tango and Something Shining: Poems. He has edited anthologies of both poetry and prose including Dante's Inferno: Translations by Twenty Contemporary Poets, The American Poetry Anthology, and The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories. He has won… several awards and honors as an editor including the Jessie Rehder Poetry Award, YMHA Discovery Award, and the Great Lakes Colleges National Book Award.