Spencer Short

Short graduated from James Madison University, the University of Michigan and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded a Teaching Writing Fellowship.[1] His collection of poetry, Tremolo, was a winner of the 2000 National Poetry Series, selected by Billy Collins. It was published by HarperPerennial in 2001.[2]

He studied law at the University of Chicago.[3] While in law school, he worked for the MacArthur Justice Center and as a teaching assistant for law professor Cass Sunstein.[4] He also aided prominent civil rights (and MacArthur Justice Center) attorney Joseph Margulies on his book, Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power.[5] He currently works as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in New York.[6] He lives in Brooklyn.[7]

Emily Nussbaum, reviewing Tremolo for the New York Times, noted ""a prickly stir of humor, philosophy and romantic giddiness," and that "reading this book is something like walking into a kitchen at a party and coming upon a wild charmer you'd never met, mid-gesticulation -- a terrific storyteller, but also one eager to switch gears mid-sentence, mid-phrase, mid-thought." According to Nussbaum, "Short is genuinely funny -- a rare and beautiful quality among contemporary poets."[8] Cal Bedient, reviewing Tremolo in the Boston Review, found "a clawing power of invention."[9] Travis Nichols, reviewing Tremolo in Jacket, called it "a singular achievement, both astute and warm, that hopefully represents only the first meditation in an ongoing and fruitful emergency."[10] In 2003, Short was included in the Poetry Society of America's New American Poets festival honoring the "most interesting recent first book poets."[11] His poems have been included in several anthologies.[12][13][14]

• 2000 National Poetry Series Open Competition with Tremolo (published in 2001 by HarperCollins).

• Tremolo. HarperPerennial. 2001.

• "Tremolo, Harper Hill"
• "Goodbye, Billyburg" - Slate.com
• "Boat" - Boston Review
• "The Bedbug Variations" - Boston Review