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Scott Cairns is a member of the Chrysostom Society, and teaches poetry writing, American literature, and seminars in poetry and poetics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His five poetry collections are Philokalia (2002), Recovered Body (1998), Figures for the Ghost (1994), The Translation of Babel (1990), and The Theology of Doubt (1985). His sixth collection, Compass of Affection, will appear in 2006. In 1996, he co-edited The Sacred Place. He serves as series editor for The Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. His poems have appeared in Best Spiritual Writing (1998 and 200), Best American Spiritual Writing (2004, 2005, and 2006), Upholding Mystery (Oxford, 1997), and in a host of literary magazines such as The Paris Review, Image: Art, Faith, Mystery, and Spiritus. His spiritual memoir, Slow Pilgrim, will appear from HaperSanFrancisco in 2007.