Michael Waters’s most recent book, Darling Vulgarity, has been selected as a finalist for the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Poetry category. He is Professor of English at Salisbury University in Maryland where he teaches creative writing and American literature. He has published seven collections of poetry, including four from BOA Editions: Darling Vulgarity (2006); Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems (2001); Green Ash, Red Maple, Black Gum (1997) and Not Just Any Death (1979) and three from Carnegie Mellon University Press, including The Burden Lifters (1989); Anniversary of the Air (1985) and Bountiful (1992). Among his awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, four Pushcart Prizes, and Residency Fellowships at Yaddo, MacDowell, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Tyrone Guthrie Center (Ireland) and most recently, at St. James Centre on Malta. Waters lives with his family in Salisbury, Maryland.