Reginald Shepherd died on September 10, 2008 at his home in Pensacola, Florida. Born on April 10, 1963 in New York City and raised in the Bronx and Macon, Georgia, he received a BA from Bennington College and MFA degrees from Brown University and the University of Iowa. He taught literature and creative writing, most recently at Antioch University and earlier at the University of West Florida, Cornell University, and Northern Illinois University. Mr. Shepherd won many awards for his writing, including grants from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation, and a silver medal for poetry in the Florida Book Awards. His first poetry collection, Some Are Drowning, was an AWP Award Series winner. His other collections include: Angel, Interrupted; Wrong; Otherhood; and Fata Morgana. He is also the author of a book of essays, Orpheus in the Bronx, and the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries and Lyric Postmodernisms. A sixth book of poetry and a second volume of essays will be published posthumously. His essay, “On Difficulty in Poetry,” appears on AWP’s public website