She is a professor of English and Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She is a contributing editor of the literary magazine Shenandoah. She was born in Chatham, Virginia. Shel lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband. Awards and Honors The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Intro Award, 1991 Academy of American Poets Prize, 1991 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1994 (As Claudia Emerson Andrews) Virginia Commission for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, 1995 and 2002 University of Mary Washington Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Award, 2003 Witter Bynner Fellowship from Library of Congress, 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry – 2006 Poet Laureate of Virginia 2008 – 2010 Library of Virginia Virginia Women in History, 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2011 PAUL HARDING