Edward Steinhardt (born August 16, 1961) is an American poet, journalist, editor and fiction author. Early years Edward Steinhardt was born in Wayne, Michigan, to Lee and Ethel (née Comstock) Steinhardt. His father was then active duty navy. The child was born premature, and named Edward in honor of his mother's father. The marriage, however, did not last. Lee remarried in 1966, marrying Mary Campbell, a union which produced four more children. Lee Steinhardt, an itinerant carpenter and cabinet-maker, moved the family frequently. Except for a dairy farm in Minnesota, the elder Steinhardt made his living exclusively as a contractor, residing at last in Missouri, where the teenage Edward attended high school and graduated in 1980. Early influences and background As a child, Steinhardt showed an interest in writing, an interest which his father reinforced by frequently purchasing books for him. By the time Edward was in high school, he demonstrated an ability to write both poetry and fiction. High school English teacher Erwin Neighbors nurtured Steinhardt's writing, inviting him to join the high school creative writing club. Neighbors also took club members to a poetry reading by Howard Nemerov. Nemerov substantially influenced Steinhardt's later work. After graduation, Steinhardt worked at a number of occupations, including bookkeeper, 35mm film projectionist, house-painter, journalist and town librarian. His first book of poetry was published in the late 1980s. By the 1990s he served as president of the Missouri Writers' Guild. For many years, he also produced the inaugural ceremonies for Missouri Writers Week, which included readings in the village of Hermann, Missouri by U.S. Poets Laureate Howard Nemerov, Richard Wilbur and Mona Van Duyn. The second of two readings Steinhardt produced with Howard Nemerov proved to be Nemerov's final poetry reading, before his death in 1991. Steinhardt is the author of six books, four of which are exclusively verse. His second book, Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems, was a sponsored entrant for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He is of the Imagist or Narrative school of poetry rejecting, for the most part, the Formalist approach to writing poetry. His poems rarely rhyme, but he does employ acute description, resonance, occasional internal rhyme, and imagery, which is purposely employed to evoke acute or certain feelings and “images.” It is with this work that he has excelled, while also becoming versatile with short fiction. He has also edited several books. His work Steinhardt's