The winter has been kind to Assistant Professor of English Mary Szybist. December brought news of a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); February began with Poet Laureate Kay Ryan hand-selecting Szybist for one of two Witter Bynner Fellowships in Poetry from the Library of Congress. In just the past few months, her poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Poetry, and The Iowa Review.

For a poet to achieve as much in an entire career would be remarkable, but for Szybist, who joined the Lewis & Clark faculty in 2004, the recent spate of success only extends the stunning trajectory set by her first book, Granted, which was a finalist for the National Book Circle Critic's Award in Poetry in 2003.

Szybist's work on her second book of poems, tentatively titled Incarnadine, will be supported by the NEA fellowship, one of the foremost awards in the literary field, which awards $25,000 to published creative writers of exceptional talent, encouraging the production of new work and allowing writers the time and means to write.

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