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]…