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Louis E. Bourgeois was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in the Slidell/LaCombe area, as well as East New Orleans on Bayou Sauvage. In 1996 he earned a B.A. from Louisiana State University in English and in 2002 was the first graduate of The University of Mississippi’s MFA program in creative writing. He has published translations, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and interviews in over two hundred magazine and journals in North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2004, he was the winner of the University of Milwaukee’s Cream City Review’s poetry contest for his poem “The Shed: The Daughter of Shadows Speaks from Max Beckmann’s The Dream (1921).” Other awards include The Robert Penn Warren Award, the Common Ground Review’s poetry award, an Excellence Award from the Dana Literary Society, three Editor’s Choice Awards, four Pushcart nominations, as well as an artist grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission. Bourgeois’ books include, Through the Cemetery Gates, The Distance of Ducks, The Animal, Cora Falling Off the Face of the Earth, White Night, Fragments of a Life Thirty-two Years Gone, OLGA and a forthcoming collection of short prose, The Gar Diaries. Bourgeois is also co-founder and editor of VOX, an independent experimental literary journal based in Oxford, Mississippi. His poem “A Voice in the City” was recently selected by Heather McHugh for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2007. His newest work of nonfiction, The Gar Diaries, will be published this fall by Community Press.

VOX Co-Founder and Co-Editor Louis E. Bourgeois Included in Scribner's Best American Poetry 2007

OXFORD, Miss. The first graduate of the University of Mississippi's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program has been published in the nation's most critically acclaimed poetry anthology. Louis E. Bourgeois, UM instructor in English, had his poem "A Voice from the City" included in The Best American Poetry (Scribner, 2007). He is among 75 poets selected by renowned poet and guest editor Heather McHugh for the 20th edition of the collection. "Thousands of poems are published or posted each year. I thought this prestigious publication as well as my other achievements reflect well on the university's new program," said Bourgeois, who received his MFA in 2002.Released Sept. 11, the anthology includes new work by established poets, including Robert Creely, Billy Collins, Jane Hirshfield, Galway Kinnell, Russell Edson, Robert Pinsky and Donald Hall. The volume also features such rising stars as Ben Lerner, Meghan O'Rourke, Brian Turner, and Matthea Harvey. High praises for the anthology have been forthcoming.

"All and all, this is a riskier than usual volume, though also full of familiar pleasures. Certainly attests to poetry's continuing vitality," wrote Publishers Weekly in its starred review. "A best' anthology that really lives up to its title," said a critic writing in the Chicago Tribune. Bourgeois is co-founder and editor of VOX, an independent experimental literary journal based in Oxford. He previously won the University of Milwaukee's Cream City Review's poetry contest for his poem "The Shed: The Daughter of Shadow Speaks from Max Beckmann's The Dream (1921)." His other awards include the Robert Penn Warren Award, the Common Ground Review's poetry award, an Excellence Award from the Dana Literary Society, three Editor's Choice Awards and four Pushcart Prize nominations. He also received an artist's grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission. Bourgeois' books include "Through the Cemetery Gates," "The Distance of Ducks," "The Animal," "Cora Falling Off the Face of the Earth," "White Night," "Fragments of a Life Thirty-Two Years Gone," "OLGA" and a forthcoming collection of short prose, "The Gar Diaries." A native of New Orleans, Bourgeois earned his bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University. He has published translations, fiction, memoirs, poetry and interviews in more than 200 magazines and journals in North America, Europe and Asia.

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