Neil Shepard

Shepard received a BA from the University of Vermont, an MFA from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. from Ohio University. He has taught at Louisiana State University, Rider University in New Jersey and Johnson State College in Vermont, as well as in the low-residency MFA writing program at Wilkes University[6] and he was for a quarter-century the Senior Editor of the literary magazine Green Mountains Review.[7] He has published eight books of poetry to positive reviews,[8][9][10] his latest being How It Is: Selected Poems. His poems and essays appear in such magazines as Antioch Review, AWP Chronicle, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Harvard Review, New American Writing, New England Review, North American Review, Ontario Review, Paris Review, Shenandoah, Small Press Reviews, Southern Review, TriQuarterly and Vermont Public Radio.[11][12][13]

Shepard's first creative writing teacher was David Huddle, poet and short story writer at the University of Vermont. Shepard studied with William Tremblay for his Master's work at Colorado State University and with Stanley Plumly for his doctoral work at Ohio University.[14][15]

His marriage to Kate Riley, linguistic anthropologist, introduced Shepard to the South Pacific, French language and French colonial culture. He accompanied Riley to the Marquesas Islands, where she conducted her fieldwork on language and culture, and eventually Shepard wrote the Marquesan poems that appear in his second book I'm Here Because I Lost My Way. The birth of his daughter also deeply affected his work. A section of poems called Birth Announcements appears in Shepard's third book, This Far from the Source.[16]

Shepard's extensive travel, including year-long sojourns in Shanghai, China (1991), the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific (1993), and France (2003)[11][16] have also influenced his work. Shepard’s fourth book of poetry, (T)ravel/Un(t)ravel, records these experiences abroad.[9] Shepard’s long association with Vermont is recorded in his fifth and seventh books, Vermont Exit Ramps and Vermont Exit Ramps II, which mix history, natural history, and personal history to investigate life along the highways of Vermont.[11][13][17] His sixth book, Hominid Up, is his most overtly political book to date, the first section focused on urban life in New York City and the second section focused on rural life in northern New England. His eighth book, How It Is: Selected Poems, gathers poems from his previous seven collections.

• Shepard, Neil (1993). Scavenging the Country for a Heartbeat. Mid-List Press. ISBN 9780922811168.

• Shepard, Neil (1998). I'm Here Because I Lost My Way. Mid-List Press. ISBN 9780922811380.

• Shepard, Neil (2006). This Far from the Source. Mid-List Press. ISBN 9780922811724.

• Shepard, Neil (2011). (T)ravel/Un(t)ravel. Mid-List Press. ISBN 9780922811885.

• Shepard, Neil (2012). Vermont Exit Ramps. Big Table Publishing Company. ISBN 9780984956760.

• Shepard, Neil (2015). Hominid Up. Salmon Poetry. ISBN 9781908836953.
• Shepard, Neil (2016). Vermont Exit Ramps II. Green Writers Press. ISBN 9780996267649.
• Shepard, Neil (2018). How It Is: Selected Poems. Salmon Poetry. ISBN 9781912561001.

• Mid-List Press
• Big Table Publishing