Cyrus Cassells is an American poet and professor. 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 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. Cassells' collection More Than Peace and Cypresses , and his fifth book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, 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.
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