Lewis Hyde is a poet, essayist, translator, and cultural critic with a particular interest in the public life of the imagination. His 1983 book, The Gift, illuminates and defends the non-commercial portion of artistic practice. He is a MacArthur Fellow, former director of undergraduate creative writing at Harvard University, and formerly the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College. Lewis lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he now dedicates himself full time to writing.