Taylor, who has been writing poetry for 30 years, is professor of literature and co-director of the MFA program in creative writing at American University. His third collection of poems, The Flying Change, received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; his first two, The Horse Show at Midnight, and An Afternoon of Pocket Billiards, have been reissued in one volume. His collection, Understanding Fiction: Poems 1986-1996, appeared in 1996.
His translations from Bulgarian, French, Hebrew, Italian and Russian have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies; he has also published translations from Greek and Roman classical drama.
Taylor has received Fellowships in Creative Writing for the National Endowment for the Arts, a Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Witter Bynner Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Golden Crane Award of the Washington Chapter of the American Literary Translators Association.