He graduated from Harvard University with a B.A., from Columbia University with an M.A., and from Yale University with a Ph.D in Comparative Literature.He taught at the University of Washington, and the University of California, Berkeley.He founded and edited from 1986 to 1990, the journal Margin.He lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

• "Taxim from the Café Amane", AGNI

• The Rim of Dawn, Pasdeloup Press, 2006
• Lilac Cigarette in a Wish Cathedral, University of South Carolina Press, 1998, ISBN 9781570032707
• And other voyages, Mho & Mho Works, 1986, ISBN 9780917320255

Non fiction

• Narcissus and Orpheus: pastoral in Sand, Fromentin, Jewett, Alain-Fournier, and Dinesen Garland, 1988, ISBN 9780824074944
• Kings of the road: a portrait of racers and racing, Authors Robin Magowan, Graham Watson, Photographer Graham Watson, Springfield Books Limited, 1987, ISBN 9780947655198
• Tour de France: the 75th anniversary cycle race, S. Paul, 1979, ISBN 9780091387303

Travel

• Improbable Journeys, Northwestern University Press, 2002, ISBN 9780810160927
• Ecuador: A Travel Journal, Henri Michaux, Translator Robin Magowan, Northwestern University Press, 2001, ISBN 9780810160910

Memoir

• Memoirs of a Minotaur, Story Line Press, ISBN 97818852667981999