Bruce Guernsey is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Eastern Illinois University where he taught 19th Century American Literature for twenty-five years and directed the creative writing program. He has also taught at William and Mary, Johns Hopkins, and Virginia Wesleyan where he was Poet in Residence for four years. The recipient of two Senior Fulbright Lectureships in American Poetry to Portugal and Greece, he has twice sailed around the world as a faculty member with Semester at Sea. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, The American Scholar, and many of the quarterlies, and among his awards are fellowships in creative writing from the NEA, four from the Illinois Arts Council, and the NEA Residency Fellowship at the MacDowell Colony. Five of his poems have been featured in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry. He is a former editor of The Spoon River Poetry Review. The author of thirteen collections of poetry, his most recent book is FROM RAIN: Poems, 1970-2010 (Ecco Qua Press, 2012). He also recently edited Mapping the Line: Poets on Teaching, a collection of class-tested exercises, written and used by some of the country’s best poet/teachers.