Bruce Beasley is a professor of English at Western Washington University and the author of six collections of poems, most recently THE CORPSE FLOWER: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (University of Washington Press, 2007). He won the University of Georgia Contemporary Poetry Series Award for LORD BRAIN (2005), the Colorado Prize for Poetry (selected by Charles Wright) for SUMMER MYSTAGOGIA (1996), and the Ohio State University Press/Journal Award for THE CREATION (1994). Wesleyan University Press published his books SPIRITUALS (1988) and SIGNS AND ABOMINATIONS (2000). He has won an NEA fellowship and three Pushcart Prizes, and his work appears in THE PUSHCART BOOK OF POETRY: THE BEST POEMS FROM THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS OF THE PUSHCART PRIZE.