Crews' poem "The Body Electric" in the NYT

Poet and English Ph.D. alum James Crews was featured in the New York Times on December 3. His poem, "The Body Electric," was selected by poet Naomi Shihab Nye.

"Poems don’t look at; they look into," writes Nye. "Contemplating the body in which he lives every minute of his days, James Crews imagines what’s happening inside, then feels the metaphor of a glittering city arise."

James Crews’ work has appeared in Ploughshares, Raleigh Review, Crab Orchard Review and The New Republic, as well as on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column, and he is a regular contributor to The London Times Literary Supplement. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Writing & Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The author of two collections of poetry, The Book of What Stays (Prairie Schooner Prize and Foreword Book of the Year Citation, 2011) and Telling My Father (Cowles Prize, 2017), Crews is also co-editor of several anthologies of poetry, including Healing the Divide: Poems of Kinship and Connection. He leads Mindfulness & Writing workshops and retreats throughout the country and works as a writing coach with groups and individuals. He lives with his husband, Brad Peacock, in Shaftsbury, Vermont.

Read James Crews' poem and Naomi Shihab Nye's reflection on the New York Times website.