Faculty Profile for Mr. Cyrus Cassells III
Biography Section
Biography and Education
I am the 2021 Texas State Artist-Poet Laureate. Among my honors: a Guggenheim fellowship, the National Poetry Series, a Lambda Literary Award, a Lannan Literary Award, two NEA grants, a Pushcart Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award. My 2018 volume, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. Still Life with Children: Selected Poems of Francesc Parcerisas, translated from the Catalan, was awarded the Texas Institute of Letters’ Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translated Book of 2018 and 2019. I was nominated for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism for my film and television reviews in The Washington Spectator. My eighth volume, The World That the Shooter Left Us, will be published by Four Way Books in February 2022. My second book of translations, To The Cypress Again and Again: Tribute to Salvador Espriu, will be published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press in 2023.Research Interests
Classical and Mediterranean History, African-American History and Culture, Catalan, French, and Italian language and culture, Human Rights issues, SpiritualitySelected Scholarly/Creative Work
- Cassells, C. (2022). The World That The Shooter Left Us. New York, NY, United States: Four Way Books. Retrieved from https://fourwaybooks.com/site/
- Cassells, C. (2021). Novel excerpt: “Doctor King’s Queens.” In My Gingerbread Shakespeare (Special African American Issue edited by Charles Johnson, Vol. 33, pp. 38–46). Evanston, Illinois, US.
- Cassells, C. (2021, March). “How Many Lives Have We Lived in Paris?” Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day. New York, NY, US: Academy of American Poets.
- Cassells, C. (2020). More Than Watchmen at Daybreak. Syracuse, NY, US: Nine Mile Art Corporation.
- Cassells, C. (2019, December 30). “Altitude.” Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day. New York, NY, United States: Academy of American Poets. Retrieved from https://poets.org/poem/altitude-0
Selected Awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: 2021 Golden Apple Award, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. March 2021 - June 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: 2021 Presidential Excellence Award, Texas State University. December 2020 - June 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: 2021 Texas State Artist-Poet Laureate, http://www.arts.texas.gov/initiatives/texas-state-artist/. December 2020 - May 18, 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translated Book of 2018-2019 for Still Life with Children: Selected Poems of Francesc Parcerisas, Texas Institute of Letters. December 2019 - March 2020
- Award / Honor Nominee: Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Pulitzer Prize Committee. January 2019 - April 2019
Selected Grants
- Cassells, Cyrus (Principal). 2022 Poet Laureate Fellowship, Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $50000. (Submitted: February 17, 2022, Funded: August 2022 - June 2023). Grant.
- Cassells, Cyrus (Principal). 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $55000. (Submitted: September 17, 2018, Funded: January 7, 2020 - July 2020). Grant.
- Cassells, Cyrus C.. Two-Week Resident Poetry Fellowship in Taos, New mexico, Mabel Dodge Luhan Foundation, $400.00. (Funded: January 1, 2019 - January 15, 2019). Grant.
Selected Service Activities
Chair
Jury for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry
May 2017-May 2022
Member
Steering Committee, Texas Writers for Democratic Action:
January 2023-December 2024
Member
William Merwin Conservancy Residency Task Force Committee
January 2021-December 2024
Adjudicator
Academy of American Poets
July 2023-April 30, 2024
Adjudicator
New American Studies Journal
August 2023-February 2024