News Release — Cassells Reading

CYRUS CASSELLS to read from his fifth book,THE CROSSED-OUT SWASTIKA

3:30 p.m., WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012

READING + Q&A + BOOK SIGNING

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RELEASED 4/27/12

At 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos welcome Cyrus Cassells to the podium. A Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and professor of English at Texas State, Cassells will read from his latest collection of poems, The Crossed-Out Swastika, take questions from the audience, and sign books.

Admission is free and open to the public. The Wittliff Collections are located on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University-San Marcos.  A selection of Cassells’ books will be for sale at the event by the University Bookstore.

From the publisher:
Cyrus Cassells’ fifth book of poetry commemorates the blazing integrity of young people caught in the vise of World War II. In its journey through the “antimiracle” 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. A gorgeous and necessary book. —CopperCanyonPress.org

Cyrus Cassells is known for channeling life experiences—his own and those of others—into lyrical language that evokes empathy and compassion. His new collection of poems, The Crossed-Out Swastika, tells the stories of young people who lived through World War II in Europe. Cassells took the name of the book, just released by Copper Canyon Press, from the story of Hans Scholl, a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement who bravely crossed out swastikas on the walls of Munich under the cover of night.

Cassells is also the author of More Than Peace and Cypresses (Copper Canyon Press, 2004); Beautiful Signor (1997), which won the Lambda Literary Award; Soul Make a Path Through Shouting (1994), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and received the William Carlos Williams Award; and The Mud Actor (1982), his first book, which was a National Poetry Series selection. Cassells is the recipient of a 1995 Pushcart Prize, the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Award, and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has worked as a translator, film critic, actor, and teacher. Currently he is a professor of English at Texas State.