Born in San Francisco, Calif., Robert Hass received his undergraduate degree from St. Mary's College and his masters and Ph.D. from Stanford University. After graduating, Hass wrote his first collection of poetry, Field Guide, which went on to win the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award in 1973. Hass's second collection, Praise, won the Williams Carlos Williams Award in 1979. Selected by the Library of Congress as Poet Laureate of the United States in 1995-96, Hass has taught writing at the University of California at Berkeley since 1989. Hass has co-translated several volumes of poetry by Nobel Laureate and fellow colleague Czeslaw Milosz and is the editor of The Essential Haiku.