Cyrus Cassells

Cyrus Cassells
Born 1957
Dover, Delaware

Cyrus Cassells (born 1957) is an American poet and professor.[1]

Life and work

Cassells was born in Dover, Delaware, grew up in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, and began writing poetry in high school. He graduated in 1979 from Stanford University with a degree in film and broadcasting, and landed a job creating poetry filmstrips in the film division of a publishing house, where he worked when Al Young called to tell him his manuscript had been selected for publication from the 1981 National Poetry Series competition.He then went on to win the 1981 National Poetry Series competition.[2] He has worked as a translator, film critic, actor, and teacher. Since 1998, he has taught poetry at Texas State University–San Marcos for the MFA in writing program, and lives in Austin.[3][4]

Cassells' collection More Than Peace and Cypresses (Copper Canyon Press), and his fifth book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, (2012) were published by Copper Canyon Press. He has won many awards including a 1995 Pushcart Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, and the William Carlos Williams Award. He was nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Soul Make A Path Through Shouting. He has had poems published in literary journals and magazines including Ploughshares[5] Indiana Review, AGNI, The Literati Quarterly, Boston Review," "Icarus" and Callaloo.[6]

He is out as gay.[7]

Poetry collections

  • The Gospel according to Wild Indigo (Southern Illinois University Press, 2018)
  • The Crossed-Out Swastika (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)
  • More Than Peace and Cypresses (Copper Canyon Press, 2004)
  • Beautiful Signor (Copper Canyon Press, 1997)
  • Soul Make a Path Through Shouting (Copper Canyon Press, 1994)
  • The Mud Actor (Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1982)

Honors and awards

  • 2014 Lannan Resident Fellowship in Marfa
  • 2012 Finalist for the Balcones Prize for Best Poetry Book of 2012 for The Crossed-Out Swastika
  • 2008 Lannan Resident Fellowship in Marfa
  • 2005 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry
  • 2004 Library Journal Best Poetry Books of the Year for More Than Peace and Cypresses
  • 2004 Lannan Literary Selection Book for More Than Peace and Cypresses
  • 1997 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award finalist for Beautiful Signor
  • 1997 Lambda Literary Award for Beautiful Signor
  • 1997 Sister Circle Book Award for Beautiful Signor
  • 1995 Lenore Marshall Prize finalist for Soul Make a Path through Shouting
  • 1994 Publishers Weekly Best Poetry Books of the Year for Soul Make a Path through Shouting
  • 1994 William Carlos Williams Award for Soul Make a Path Through Shouting
  • 1993 and 2006 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships
  • 1993 Lannan Literary Award - Poetry[8]
  • 1992 Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poet Award[9]
  • 1992 Finalist for the AWP Poetry Prize for Soul Make a Path through Shouting
  • 1986 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry[10]
  • 1984 Helene Wurlitzer Foundation resident fellowship in Taos
  • 1983 Bay Area Book reviewers Award finalist for The Mud Actor
  • 1982-83 Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Resident Fellowship
  • 1981 National Poetry Series Prize for The Mud Actor
  • 1993 and 2006 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships

References

  1. ↑ Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More - Cyrus Cassells
  2. ↑ Texas State University > Rising Star: Cyrus Cassells Continues to Form Cultural Legacy as “A Poet of Witness By Amy Francisco Archived 2010-05-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Texas State University > MFA Faculty Archived 2010-01-29 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ Academy of American Poets > Poet: Cyrus Cassells Bio
  5. ↑ Ploughshares, > Authors & Articles > Cyrus Cassells
  6. ↑ Callaloo > Volume 24, Number 3, Summer 2001
  7. ↑ Jiménez, Mary Frances, and Cyrus Cassells. "Living Witness: An Interview with Cyrus Cassells." African American Review 43, no. 1 (2009): 69-77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27802560.
  8. ↑ Lannan Foundation > Bios: Cyrus Cassells
  9. ↑ Academy of American Poets > Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poet Award Winners List
  10. ↑ NEA Literature Fellowships: Forty Years of Supporting American Writers > NEA Literature Fellowships > Creative Writers Archived 2009-11-19 at WebCite
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