"Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was brutally beaten, tortured, and left tied to a fence for eighteen hours in early October of 1998. This hate-motivated murder has generated phenomenal outrage against violence and homophobia. In the hope that this tragedy may not be forgotten, that attitudes can be changed, or just from an inner need, the seventy-five poets in this book have written commemorative poems while other poems, written previously, have been offered in his memory."--BOOK JACKET.