Liam Rector (November 21, 1949—August 15, 2007) was born in Washington, DC. He earned graduate degrees from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and administered literary programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Associated Writing Programs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets. He founded and directed the graduate Writing Seminars at Bennington College. In addition, he taught at Columbia University, The New School, and Emerson College.
Rector is the author of three books of poems: The Executive Director of the Fallen World (2006), American Prodigal (1994), and The Sorrow of Architecture (1984). He edited The Day I Was Older: On the Poetry of Donald Hall (1989), and co-edited with Tree Swenson On the Poetry of Frank Bidart (2007). Rector received fellowships in Poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.