Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, assistant professor of English at Cornell, has been selected as a finalist for a National Book Award in poetry.

She was chosen for her most recent book, "Open Interval" (University of Pittsburgh Press), a collection of poems drawing on the intersections of astronomy and mathematics, history, literature and lived experience.

"I had gotten the impression just from talking to people that they really liked this book, and a couple of reviews came out that were good," Van Clief-Stefanon said. She also noted her appreciation for back-of-book blurbs by poets Cornelius Eady, Mark Doty and Claudia Emerson.

"They're poets I really respect and know, and whose work I just love," she said. "I was just honored that they had liked the book."

Her other books include the collection "Black Swan," winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize; and "Poems in Conversation and a Conversation" (2008) with Elizabeth Alexander, who composed and delivered "Praise Song for the Day" for Barack Obama's inauguration.

Van Clief-Stefanon is one of five 2009 nominees for poetry. Finalists in fiction, nonfiction and young people's literature were also announced Oct. 14. Award winners, chosen by a panel of authors in each category, will be announced Nov. 18 at a ceremony in New York City.

"It's so funny that one of the [poetry finalists] is Carl Phillips, because I was obsessively reading Carl Phillips all last week," she said. "I was reading his poems to myself, I was reading them for my class and when students were coming to my office for conferences. I was really excited to see that he was a finalist."

Van Clief-Stefanon teaches poetry to undergraduates and graduate students in the Creative Writing Program and also teaches in Cornell's Prison Education Program.

"I've gotten a lot of support from my colleagues in creative writing and the English department in general, and in giving me time to write while I was working on 'Open Interval,'" she said. "It has been great to have that kind of pay off."

Her next campus appearance is a "Rhythm and Reading" event Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Barnes Hall, with fellow faculty members H.G. Carillo and J. Robert Lennon, both fiction writers and musicians. Her reading will be accompanied by local musicians Johnny Dowd and Richie Stearns. The free event is part of the Creative Writing Program Fall 2009 Reading Series.

Van Clief-Stefanon's work also forms the basis for the local Kitchen Theatre production of "BOP: The North Star," to be performed Oct. 25-27 at 8 p.m. and written and directed by Emilie Stark-Menneg '07, in collaboration with local musicians and actors playing a myriad of characters from Harriet Tubman to Scarlett O'Hara. Tickets are $10, available by calling 607-273-4497 or at http://www.kitchentheatre.org/sink.htm.