Ship of Fool
A native Midwesterner, William Trowbridge was born in Chicago and grew up in Omaha. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy and an M. A. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt  University.  His poetry publications include five full collections:Ship of Fool(Red Hen Press, 2011),The Complete Book of Kong(Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2003),Flickers, O Paradise, andEnter Dark Stranger(University of Arkansas Press, 2000, 1995, 1989),  and three chapbooks,The Packing House Cantata(Camber Press, 2006),TheFour Seasons(Red Dragonfly Press, 2001) andThe Book of Kong(Iowa State University Press, l986). His poems have appeared more than 30 anthologies and textbooks, as well as in such periodicals asPoetry, The Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, The Georgia Review, Boulevard, The Southern Review, Columbia, Colorado Review, The Iowa Review,Prairie Schooner, Epoch,andNew Letters. He has given readings and workshops at schools, colleges, bookstores, and literary conferences throughout the United States. His awards include an Academy  of American Poets Prize, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, a Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, Yaddo, and The Anderson Center. He is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Northwest Missouri State  University, where he was an editor ofThe Laurel Review/GreenTower Press from 1986 to 2004. Now living in Lee’s Summit, MO, he teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA in writing program. His hobbies include motorcycling on his Triumph Sprint 995 S/T, travel, and trying to keep the damn rabbits away from the hibiscus.