David Craig Austin (1961–1991), a 1988 graduate of the Columbia MFA Program, died in March 1991 of AIDS-related illnesses. His poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, and in the anthology, Poets for Life: Seventy-six Poets Respond to AIDS. He was the featured poet in an issue of The Journal (Ohio State University), and he published a number of critical essays and reviews.