Cyrus Cassells's first book, The Mud Actor, was a National Poetry Series selection in 1982. Previously a teacher at the College of the Holy Cross and Northwestern University, Cassells has received the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poet Award of the Academy of American Poets and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1994, Cassells's second volume of poems, titled Soul Makes a Path Through Shouting, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The book of poems was awarded the Poetry Society of America's William Carlos Williams Award, which honors works published by small, non-profit, or university presses. With his third… collection of poems, Beautiful Signor, Cassells makes the spiritual quest the governing theme. The book of love sonnets won the Lamda Award in 1997. Cassells is a professional actor and teaches in Rome, Italy.