Skip to main content Mr. Cyrus Cassells III
- Regents' Professor at English, College of Liberal Arts
Service Activities
2025
- Adjudicator, Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize Judge for the Michigan Quarterly Review.
August 2024 - March 2025.
2024
- Editor, New American Studies Journal.
August 2023 - July 2024.
- Adjudicator, Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day.
July 2023 - April 30, 2024.
- Member, Steering Committee, Texas Writers for Democratic Action:.
January 2023 - December 2024.
- Editorial Review Board Member, What Books Press.
September 2021 - December 2024.
- Member, William Merwin Conservancy Residency Task Force Committee.
January 2021 - December 2024.
- Editor, Nine Mile Magazine.
February 2019 - December 2024.
- Member, MFA Committee.
January 2018 - December 2024.
- Member, Amnesty International.
January 2015 - December 2024.
- Member, Scholarship Committee.
January 1, 2018 - December 31, 2024.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for Aaron Barker’s translations of Lorca’s Gypsy Ballads:.
September 2024 - November 2024.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endosrement for Robert Carr's Blue Memento.
September 2024 - November 2024.
- Chair, 2025 Endowed Chair in Poetry.
August 2024 - November 2024.
- Adjudicator, RHINO 2024-2025 Founders’ Prize Guest Judge.
March 8, 2024 - November 25, 2024.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for Mickie Kennedy's Worth Burning.
June 26, 2024 - September 2024.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement of Faylita Hick's A Map of My Want.
February 2024 - July 2024.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional endorsement of Gabrielle Myers's Points in the Network.
June 6, 2024 - July 28, 2024.
- Adjudicator, New American Studies Journal.
August 2023 - July 23, 2024.
- Co-Chair, 2024-25 Endowed Chair in Poetry.
October 2023 - February 2024.
2023
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for David Meischen's Caliche Road Poems.
November 2023 - December 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professrional Endorsement for Radha Marcum's Pine Soot Tendon Bone.
October 2023 - November 2023.
- Member, New MFA Director Hiring Commitee.
September 2023 - November 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for Ellen Hinsey's The Invisible Fugue.
August 2023 - September 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, PROFESSIONAL ENDORSEMENT FOR DZVINIA ORLOWSKY’S THOSE ABSENCES CLOSEST.
July 2023 - August 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement of Lynne Thompson's Blue on a Blue Palette.
July 2023 - August 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for William Barnes's The Artemisia.
June 2023 - July 2023.
- Coordinator / Organizer, What Juneteenth Means (To Me), statewide poetry contest for Texas High School Students, as 2021-22 Texas Poet Laureate.
September 2022 - June 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for William Wenthe's The Gentle Art.
April 2023 - May 2023.
- Member, Professional Endorsement for Diane Glancy's Jawbone.
March 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for Tiffany Troy's When Illium Burns.
February 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for 2023 Texas PPoet Laureate I'rene Lara's "eater of flowers".
January 2023 - February 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for The Abduction by Maram Al-Asri, translated by Hélène Cardona (White Pine Press, April 4, 2023).
January 2023.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement of Andrew McFayden-Ketchum's Fight or Flight.
December 2022 - January 2023.
2022
- Chair, Jury for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry.
May 2017 - May 2022.
- Member, TKL Reading Series Committee.
January 2018 - December 2022.
- Member, English Endowment Committee.
January 2018 - December 2022.
- Member, MFA Committee.
January 2016 - December 2022.
- Member, English Department Endowment Committee.
January 2016 - December 2022.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement of Ann Fisher-Wirth's Book, Paradise is Jagged.
September 2022 - November 2022.
- Co-Chair, Senior Lecturer/ Assistant to MFA Director Search Committee.
September 2022 - November 7, 2022.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement of Katherine Seluja's Book, Point of Entry.
August 2022 - September 2022.
- Reviewer / Referee, Professional Endorsement for C. W. Emerson's book, Luminous Body, Glittering Ash.
July 2022 - September 2022.
- Member, PEN International.
January 2017 - May 2022.
2021
- Reviewer / Referee, Cassells Endorsement: KB Brookins, How to Identify Yourself with a Wound.
August 2021 - October 2021.
- Adjudicator, Austin First Youth Poet Laureate.
August 2021 - October 2021.
- Reviewer / Referee, Endorsement of What Falls Away Is Always: Writers Over 60 on Writing and Death (What News Press: 2021) Edited by Katharine Haake and Gail Wronsky.
June 2021 - October 19, 2021.
- Reviewer / Referee, Saturnalia Press: Endorsement of Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems of Gemma Gorga.
May 2021 - October 15, 2021.
- Reviewer / Referee, Endorsement of Lisa Lopez Smith’s chapbook, Grace Notes.
April 2021 - June 2021.
- Fundraiser, Four Way Books.
March 2020 - June 2021.
- Reviewer / Referee, Norton: Book Endorsement for Espada's Floaters.
August 2020 - January 19, 2021.
2020
- Fundraiser, Under the Volcano Black Writers Fund.
April 2020 - July 2020.
- Adjudicator, Crazyhorse Magazine.
April 2020 - May 2020.
- Editor, The Washington Spectator.
February 2019 - April 2020.
- Adjudicator, Jury for the Poetry Society of America.
February 2020 - March 2020.
- Reviewer / Referee, Wesleyan University Press: Book Endorsement for Jeffers's The Age of Phillis.
January 2020 - March 2020.
- Chair, MFA Thesis Direction for Luke Ramsey during my leave.
August 2019 - March 31, 2020.
- Reviewer / Referee, Carnegie Mellon University Press: Book Endorsement for Virginia Konchan's Any God Will Do.
September 2019 - February 2020.
2019
- Adjudicator, American Literary Review.
September 2019.
- Reviewer / Referee, Yaddo.
June 2019 - September 2019.
- Reviewer / Referee, Associated Writing Programs.
April 2019 - July 2019.
2018
- Adjudicator, Austin Community College: 2017 Balcones Poetry Prize for the Outstanding Book of the Year.
March 2018 - May 2018.
- Adjudicator, Public Poetry (Power Poetry Contest).
March 2018 - May 2018.
2017
- Member, TKL Reading Series Committee.
January 2017 - December 2017.
- Member, Senior Lecturer/ Assistant to MFA Director Search Committee.
May 4, 2017 - June 15, 2017.
- Chair, Annual Review Committee (Full Professor).
January 1, 2017 - May 15, 2017.
- Adjudicator, State of Texas Judge for National Endowment for the Arts “Poetry Out Loud” competition.
February 25, 2017.
2016
- Member, Scholarship Committee.
January 2016 - December 2016.
- Member, TKL Reading Series Committee.
January 2016 - December 2016.
- Member, PEN International.
January 2016 - December 2016.
- Member, Annual Review Committee (Full Professors).
January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2016.
- Adjudicator, National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship Panel.
March 2016 - May 19, 2016.
- Adjudicator, Poetry Society of America: Sole Judge for the annual Robert H. Winner Memorial Award.
March 2016 - April 2016.
- Consultant on a future AWP Literary Conference, Associated Writing Programs.
February 2016.
2015
- Other, Undergraduate Marshal, December 2015 Liberal Arts commencement.
December 2015.
- Member, Annual Review Committee (Full Professor).
January 2015 - December 2015.
- Member, English Department Endowment Committee.
January 2015 - December 2015.
- Member, MFA Committee.
January 2015 - December 2015.
- Member, Scholarship Committee.
January 2015 - December 2015.
- Member, TKL Reading Series Committee.
January 2015 - December 2015.
- Member, PEN International.
January 1, 2015 - December 1, 2015.
- Reviewer / Referee, Review in the June 15 issue of The Washington Spectator.
May 1, 2015 - June 1, 2015.
- Graduate Marshal, May 2015 Liberal Arts commencement, Graduate Marshal, May 2015 Liberal Arts commencement.
May 2015.
- Adjudicator, Poetry judge for Austin Poetry Society annual awards.
April 1, 2015 - May 1, 2015.
- Adjudicator, Judge for The Balcones Prize for Best Poetry Book of 2014.
February 1, 2015 - May 1, 2015.
- Adjudicator, Poetry Judge for The Crab Orchard Review Open Book Competition.
January 1, 2015 - March 1, 2015.
- Member, Fiction Assistant Professor Search Committee.
November 2014 - February 2015.
- Reviewer / Referee, Review in the February 1 issue of The Washington Spectator.
January 1, 2015 - February 1, 2015.
