George Albon

Tom Carey

Robert Glück

Lauren Gudath

Yuri Hospodar

Kevin Killian

Laura Moriarty

Harold Norse

Jocelyn Saidenberg

Linda Smukler

Elizabeth Willis

and others

The most provocative book of poetry of 1999 is Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard(Painted Leaf Books), and here from Boulder is its editor, Scott Gibson, and a sampling of local contributors to this unique anthology, a combination of 90s agitprop, "gay poetry," and postmodern experimentation. Matthew Shepard, a young gay student, was beaten, tortured, and left tied to a fence for eighteen hours in October 1998. He died in hospital several days later. The young editor Scott Gibson has gathered a remarkably diverse group of poets to commemorate this loss. On the first anniversary of Shepard's death, in Laramie, we gather together to witness and recall.

October 15, 1999