Red Clay Weather

Reginald Shepherd (1963–2008) was a Black, gay poet who grew up in the Bronx and went on to receive two MFAs, one from Brown University and one from the Iowa Writers Workshop. He authored two collections of poetry criticism and six poetry collections, all published by the University of Pittsburgh Press: Red Clay Weather, Fata Morgana, Otherhood, Wrong, Angel, Interrupted, and Some Are Drowning. His work has been widely awarded and anthologized and has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry and two Pushcart Prize anthologies. Shepherd received many awards and honors over his career, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others.

At mid-life, the self starts to dissolve into a more impersonal Self—call it something integrated, individuated, divine. Like those whose names are 'writ on water,' Reginald Shepherd's final poems in this posthumous volume testify to a life courageously lived to the full—an Orphic downstream singing to the end.