Michel Delville is a poet, essayist and musician born in Liège, Belgium. He is the author of a number of essay collections, including The American Prose Poem and Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Secret History of Maximalism (with Andrew Norris) and a collection of poetry, Third Body. He teaches literature at the University of Liège, where he directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Poetics. His awards as a writer and essayist include the SAMLA Book Award, the Choice Outstanding Book Award, the Léon Guérin Prize and the 2001 Alumni Award of the Belgian-American Educational Foundation. As a musician, he has recorded and toured extensively with various bands such as The Wrong Object and Alex Maguire Sextet, as well as high-profile jazz and rock musicians including Elton Dean, Harry Beckett, Annie Whitehead and Ed Mann.