Alan Shapiro Nominated for National Book Award

Faculty member Alan Shapiro has been named a finalist for the National Book Award for his poetry collection Night of the Republic (2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).  Winners will be announced November 14th in New York City.

Gas Station Restroom
from Night of the Republic
The present tense
is the body’s past tense
here; hence
the ghost sludge of hands
on the now gray strip
of towel hanging limp
from the jammed dispenser;
hence the mirror
squinting through grime
at grime, and the worn-
to-a-sliver of soiled soap
on the soiled sink...[Keep Reading]…