Cyrus Cassells

Discipline: Poetry

Based In: Austin, TX

Year at Millay: 1983

Awards/Honors: Prize Winner, Jackson Poetry Prize, Poets & Writers, New York, NY (2025); Prize Winner, Best New Poetry Books for Adults, New York Public Library, New York, NY (2025); Prize Winner, The Pushcart Prize Prize (2025, 1995); Finalist, Literature, Rome Prize (Prix de Rome), American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy (2024–2025); Award Winner, Soeurette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translation of a Book, Texas Institute of Letters, Spring, TX (2024, 2020); Award Winner, Poetry, Housatonic Book Award, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT (2023); Fellow, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, New York, NY (2023); Fellow, Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships, Academy of American Poets (2022); Award Winner, Presidential Excellence Award, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX (2021); Poet Laureate, Texas State Poets Laureate, Texas Commission on the Arts, Austin, TX (2021–2022); Fellow, Poetry, Guggenheim Fellowship, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, NY (2019); Nominee, Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (The Washington Spectator), The Pulitzer Prizes, Columbia University, New York, NY (2019); Finalist and Prize Winner, NPS Open Competition, The National Poetry Series (2019, 1981); Artist-in-Residence, Lois P. Rudnick Writing Residency, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, NM (2019); Finalist, Outstanding Literary Work—Poetry, NAACP Image Awards, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Baltimore, MD (2019); Finalist, Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry, Texas Institute of Letters, Spring, TX (2019); Artist-in-Residence, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Taos, NM (2019, 1984); Finalist, Balcones Prize for Poetry, Austin Community College, Austin, TX (2019, 2012); Fellow, Lannan Residency Fellowship, Lannan Foundation, Marfa, TX (2014, 2008); Artist-in-Residence, The Bellagio Center Residency Program, The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Lake Como, Italy (2006, 1993); Grant Recipient, Creative Writing Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC (2005, 1986); Prize Winner, Best Poetry of 2004, "Library Journal," New York, NY (2004); Award Winner, Poetry, Lambda Literary Award, Lambda Literary Foundation, New York, NY (1997); Finalist, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, Academy of American Poets (1995); Award Winner, William Carlos Williams Award, Poetry Society of America, New York, NY (1995); Award Winner, Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe, NM (1993); Award Winner, Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poet Award, Academy of American Poets (1992); Artist-in-Residence, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (1983); Fellow, FAWC Fellowship, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA (1982–1983); Prize Winner (Stanford University), University & College Poetry Prize, Academy of American Poets (1979).

Website: https://cyruscassells.com/

Cyrus Cassells, the 2021 Poet Laureate of Texas, is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Soul Make a Path through Shouting, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, The World That the Shooter Left Us, and Everything in Life is Resurrection: Selected Poems, 1982–2022. He is the translator from Catalan of To the Cypress Again and Again: Tribute to Salvador Espriu and Still Life with Children: Selected Poems of Francesc Parcerisas. Both volumes garnered the Texas Institute of Letters’ biennial Souerette Diehl Fraser Award for Best Translated Book. Antigone, in a Spanish Civil war version by Salvador Espriu, and The Man with the Oar on His Shoulder: Poems of Francesc Parcerisas (Stephen Mitchell Prize for Excellence in Translation, Honorable Mention) are forthcoming.

Cassells’s honors include a Lannan Literary Award, a Lambda Literary Award for Beautiful Signor, the National Poetry Series, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award. He is a Regents’ and University Distinguished Professor of English at Texas State University, where he also garnered the Presidential Excellence Award.