Background
Cassells was born in Dover, Delaware, grew up in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, and began writing poetry in high school.
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book
The Crossed-Out Swastika
( "Cassells is a passionate poet whose poems touch the co...)
"Cassells is a passionate poet whose poems touch the core of human connection through which can flow union with the infinite. Highly recommended."—Library Journal Cyrus Cassells' fifth book commemorates the blazing integrity of young people caught in the vise of World War II. In its journey through the "anti-miracle" of Europe's embattled past, The Crossed-Out Swastika follows the lives of historical and semi-fictional characters to unearth and amplify moments of almost impossible music, bravery, beauty, and redemption, illuminating the human spirit against unspeakable tyranny. Poet, from cellar to cellar, I remember I held onto, of all things, a picture book about a magical goat, inscribed by my witty father: This storybook belongs to Mademoiselle Sabine the way Paris once belonged to Marie Antoinette— Somehow having that book helped me to endure . . . Cyrus Cassells grew up in the Mojave Desert. He graduated from Stanford University and has worked as a translator, film critic, and actor; he currently teaches poetry in the MFA program at Texas State University–San Marcos. He lives in Austin, Texas.
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The Crossed-Out Swastika by Cyrus Cassells (2012-05-08)
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Soul Make a Path Through Shouting
( Enriched by his own world travels, Cassells draws with ...)
Enriched by his own world travels, Cassells draws with equal ease from Greek mythology, children's rhymes, and African-American oral traditions. The result is an hypnotic and rhapsodic interweaving of dramatic narratives forming a single whole. "Cassells's writing strikes a balance between exquisite language and an empathy for anyone who is forced to suffer."--Publishers Weekly
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Beautiful Signor by Cyrus Cassells (1997-06-01)
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The Mud Actor by Cyrus Cassells
(1982 First edition paperback.)
1982 First edition paperback.
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More Than Peace and Cypresses
( Cyrus Cassells’ fourth volume of poetry is an elegiac “...)
Cyrus Cassells’ fourth volume of poetry is an elegiac “book of heroes,” a lyric homage to the “artistic fathers” who taught him “the truth-or-bust beauty of passion transformed / into sheer compassion.” In the wake of his father’s death, Cassells returned to Italy, France and Spain, countries that nurtured him as a young writer, to investigate the sources of his inspiration. Vincent Van Gogh, Cesare Pavese, Eugenio Montale, Attilio and Bernardo Bertolucci, and García Lorca are among those invoked and revisited in order to brace Cassells through his mourning, and to serve as touchstones in his search for the meaning of gallantry and quest for courage and expression. Throughout his travels—and especially while contemplating flamenco culture—Cassells experiences the juxtaposition of mourning with unanticipated gusts of love and eroticism. Lush Andalusian-based poems emphasize the present’s power for surprise and renewal, while his elegies are ecstatic, erotic and sometimes comic. Questing and elemental, elegantly lyrical, More Than Peace and Cypresses arcs beyond grief to celebrate the fleeting majesty of our lives. From “Way of the Duende”: The day mind gone, Lord, and all the stringencies, the day’s bright yokes, the day’s heavy bridles of status: flamenco as an impassioned celebration of night, of duende, of mystery’s warrens and arabesques— Romans, Carthaginians, phantom Moors wander through the redemptive, incantatory dancing— Cyrus Cassells’ previous books have earned the William Carlos Williams award, a Lambda Book Award, and a selection as “Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly. He teaches at Southwest Texas State University and lives in Austin, Texas.
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Beautiful Signor
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- Mud Actor (A reissuing of The Mud Actor, the debut collection of poe...)
Cyrus Cassells
Edit ProfileEducation
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 First Rate (at Lloyd's) Young called to tell him his manuscript had been selected for publication from the 1981 National Poetry Series competition. Since 1998, he has taught poetry at Texas State University–San Marcos for the Master of Fine Arts in writing program, and lives in Austin.
Career
He has worked as a translator, film critic, actor, and teacher. Cassells" collection More Than Peace and Cypresses (Copper Canyon Press), and his fifth book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, (2010) were published by Copper Canyon Press. He was nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Soul Make A Path Through Shouting.
He has had poems published in literary journals and magazines including Ploughshares Indiana Review, AGNI, The Literati Quarterly, Boston Review," "Icarus" and Callaloo.
2005 National Education Association Literature Fellowship in Poetry.
Achievements
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2005 National Education Association Literature Fellowship in Poetry 1997 Lambda Literary Award for Beautiful Signor 1997 National Poetry Series Prize for The Mud Actor 1993 Lannan Literary Award - Poetry 1994 William Carlos Williams Award for Soul Make a Path Through Shouting 1992 Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poet Award 1986 National Education Association Literature Fellowship in Poetry Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.
Works
book
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More Than Peace and Cypresses
( Cyrus Cassells’ fourth volume of poetry is an elegiac “...)
-
Soul Make a Path Through Shouting
( Enriched by his own world travels, Cassells draws with ...)
-
The Crossed-Out Swastika
( "Cassells is a passionate poet whose poems touch the co...)
-
Mud Actor
(A reissuing of The Mud Actor, the debut collection of poe...)
-
The Mud Actor by Cyrus Cassells
(1982 First edition paperback.)
- The Crossed-Out Swastika by Cyrus Cassells (2012-05-08)
- Beautiful Signor by Cyrus Cassells (1997-06-01)
- Beautiful Signor
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More Than Peace and Cypresses
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Born
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Nationality
United States
Education
Awards
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Lambda Literary Award Pushcart Prize; Lannan Literary award; Lambda Literary Award; William Carlos Williams Award; National Poetry Series
Lambda Literary Awards (also known as the 'Lammys') are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes.; The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best 'poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot' published in the small presses over the previous year.Lambda Literary Awards (also known as the 'Lammys') are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes.; The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best 'poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot' published in the small presses over the previous year.