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Antioch University Los Angeles Professor Reginald Shepherd Awarded 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship

CULVER CITY, CA – April 10, 2008 – Antioch University Los Angeles is proud to announce the awarding of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship to Professor Reginald Shepherd. Shepherd is an accomplished poet and associate faculty member within AULA’s award-winning Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.

The 84th Annual Guggenheim Fellowships were awarded to a mere 191 fellows from a pool of over 2600 applicants. Each year the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation honors advanced professionals from within the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and creative arts. Guggenheim Fellows 'are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment.'

Shepherd is the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of Iowa Press, 2004) and of Lyric Postmodernisms (Counterpath Press, 2008). He is the author of: Fata Morgana (2007), winner of the Silver Medal of the 2007 Florida Book Awards, Otherhood (2003), a finalist for the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, Wrong (1999), Angel, Interrupted (1996), and Some Are Drowning (1994), winner of the 1993 Associated Writing Programs’ Award in Poetry (all University of Pittsburgh Press). Shepherd's work has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry and two Pushcart Prize anthologies, as well as in such journals as American Poetry Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and The Yale Review. It has also been widely anthologized. He is also the author of Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry (Poets on Poetry Series, University of Michigan Press).

In addition to this year’s Guggenheim fellowship, Shepherd has also previously received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the Florida Arts Council, and the Fund for Poetry.

Shepherd is an associate professor for Antioch University Los Angeles’ esteemed low-residency MFA program, where he mentors students within the poetry genre.

“All of us at Antioch are extremely proud of Reginald, whose literary artistry and superb teaching help make the MFA in Creative Writing Program one of the best in the nation” added Dr. Steve Heller, Chair of the MFA program.

Antioch’s MFA program, recently named one of the top low-residency MFA programs in the country by The Atlantic Monthly, is the world’s only MFA program specifically devoted to literature and the pursuit of social justice. Students within the program gather two times per year for intense 10 residencies where they are educated in the various roles of the writer in society, how to make a difference on the page and in the diverse communities where writers work and live. Antioch’s MFA program is highly competitive and applications are accepted twice per year, in February and August.

For more information, please contact Joanna Gerber, Director of Public Relations for Antioch University Los Angeles at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or at (310) 578-1080 x119.

Additional information on Professor Reginald Shepherd can be found online at http://reginaldshepherd.blogspot.com/

Additional information on the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles can be found online at www.AntiochLA.edu.

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