Stephen Ruffus’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including Hotel Amerika, the New World Writing Quarterly, Third Wednesday, and the Northridge Review.  His award-winning poem, "Setting the Stone," is from a sequence of poems about the passing of his son.  His manuscript, This Is Not the World, was a finalist in a contest sponsored by Serving House Books and a finalist for the Louis Award sponsored by Concrete Wolf Press.  He has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for poems that appeared in the Poetica Review (UK).  A native of Queens, New York, Stephen moved West for graduate school where he met Kathy, his wife.  They live in Salt Lake City where they raised a family and where Stephen first taught at The University of Utah, then spent the majority of his career as a teacher and associate dean at Salt Lake Community College.