Upper school English teacher Alexandra Mattraw was named 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 website soon. “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. Her chapbook, “Projection,” essentially a chapter of her book, was published by Achiote Press, Berkeley, in April. Mattraw also did poetry readings in San Francisco at Dog Eared Books and Wild West Side in May and is writing a poetry review to be published in Word for/Word, an online journal which has published several of her poems.