Dobyns was raised in New Jersey, Michigan, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He was educated at Shimer College, graduated from Wayne State University, and received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1967. He has worked as a reporter for the Detroit News. He has taught at various academic institutions, including Sarah Lawrence College, the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, the University of Iowa, Syracuse University, and Boston University. In much of his poetry and some works of non-genre fiction, Dobyns employs extended tropes, using the ridiculous and the absurd as vehicles to introduce more profound meditations on life, love, and art. He shies neither from the low nor from the sublime, and all in a straightforward narrative voice of reason. His journalistic training has strongly informed this voice.
Series
Books
Winter's Journey
2010
Saratoga Longshot
1976
Saratoga Headhunter
1985
The Wrestler's Cruel Study
1993
Boy in the Water
1999
Saratoga Haunting
1993
Dancer With One Leg
1983
Is Fat Bob Dead Yet?
2015
Saratoga Hexameter
1990
Good Poems for Hard Times
2005
The Church of Dead Girls
1997
The Burn Palace
2013
Saratoga Bestiary
1988
Cold Dog Soup
1985
Saratoga Strongbox
1998
Eating Naked
2000
Saratoga Swimmer
1981
The Two Deaths of Senora Puccini
1988
Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides
1999
Common Carnage
1996
Saratoga Backtalk
1994
Mystery, So Long
2005
Saratoga Fleshpot
1995
After Shocks/Near Escapes
1991
Saratoga Payback
2017
The Balthus Poems
1982
Next Word, Better Word
The Craft of Writing Poetry
2011
The Day's Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech
2016
A Boat Off the Coast
1987
Velocities
New and Selected Poems 1966-1992
1994
Best Words, Best Order
Essays on Poetry
1996
Saratoga Snapper
1986
The Porcupine's Kisses
2002
