Upper school English teacher Alexandra Mattraw was recently notified she was one of eight finalists in the 2009 Nightboat Books Poetry Prize competition for her book of poetry, “honest as any treeless place.” Nightboat will be posting her biography, photo and one of her poems on their Web site this spring. “Being a finalist is kind of a big deal for me because I’ve been working on this book for six years and this is another step towards publishing,” Mattraw said. She has a small volume, called a chapbook, “Projection,” coming out soon from Achiote Press, Berkeley.