Bill Holm

Bill Holm was an American poet, essayist, memoirist, and musician.

Holm was born on a farm north of Minneota, Minnesota, the grandson of Icelandic immigrants. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota where he graduated in 1965. Later, he attended the University of Kansas.

Holm won a Fulbright and went to Iceland for a year, which stretched into longer. He continued to visit Iceland so regularly that his friends there helped him find a house in Hofsós. His last book, "The Windows of Brimnes," is about his time in Iceland.

He was Professor Emeritus of English at Southwest Minnesota State University, where he taught classes on poetry and literature until his retirement in 2007. Though Minneota was his home, Holm had traveled the world, teaching English in China, spending summers in Iceland and late winters in Arizona, and visiting Europe and Madagascar.

Holm was a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie "Home Companion" radio show and some of his poems were included in Keillor's "Writer's Almanac."

Holm was a McKnight Distinguished Artist in 2008, an award that honors Minnesota artists for their life work.