Shane Seely has published two books of poems: The Surface of the Lit World, winner of the 2014 Hollis Summers Prize from Ohio University Press; and The Snowbound House, winner of the 2008 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. His third book, The First Echo, is due out from LSU Press in 2019. He is an Associate Professor at University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he directs the MFA program in Creative Writing.