In 1973 he was invited to participate in the International Writers Program at The University of Iowa and in 1997 he was short-listed for a Paul Hamlyn Award. He is also a distinguished translator whose versions of Fawzi Karim were a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for 2011. He was the founder of The Theatre of Mistakes and editor of Grey Suit: Video for Art and Literature. His most recent book of poems is Silent Highway, Anvil 2014. Writing in Poetry Review, John Greening sums up:’So much good poetry that one is astonished that Howell’s name is not better known.’