Jack Ridl is Professor Emeritus of English at Hope College where he taught courses in literature, essay writing, poetry writing, and the nature of poetry for thirty-five years. He has published six volumes of poetry and more than two hundred poems in some fifty literary magazines; his most recent collection, Broken Symmetry, was selected by the Society of Midland Authors as one of the two best volumes of poetry published in 2006. His chapbook Against Elegies received the 2001 Letterpress Award from the Center for Book Arts. His recognitions for teaching excellence include the Hope Outstanding Professor-Educator award at Hope College for 1976, the Michigan Teacher of the Year award from the Carnegie Foundation in 1996, and the Favorite Faculty/Staff Member award at Hope College in 2003. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, with Peter Schakel he coedited Approaching Poetry (1997) and 250 Poems (2003); and he is coeditor with Janet Gardner, Beverley Lawn, and Peter Schakel of Literature: a Portable Anthology (2004).