Friday, August 01, 2003
USI instructor’s poetry published
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Here’s a last minute addition for your summer reading lists. Jim McGarrah’s new book of poetry, Running the Voodoo Down, is now available at the University of Southern Indiana Bookstore. In January McGarrah, USI instructor in English, received the Elixir Press 2003 Editor’s Choice Award for Poetry for Voodoo. The prize included publication of the 81-page poetry collection. “These poems are fierce and unflinching. McGarrah makes a difficult life on the page, one that is relentlessly personal and historical. Here are bruised, shamed, restless elegies wrestling to give us a collection that is beautiful and unafraid of its own shadow,” commented reviewer and author Victoria Redel. A Vietnam veteran, McGarrah was wounded during the Tet Offensive of 1968. Before joining the University, he worked as a janitor, horse trainer, hod carrier, social worker, and mailman. An excerpt from the title poem follows: What if the spent bullet that struck my chest beneath an open flack jacket thirty years ago isn’t spent, is killing me slowly? What if it had been fired from point blank range, a bolt from a god in black pajamas? What if what I had slapped and caught with an open hand was the hole it left, if my blood had congealed to paste, and my lungs lost their vacuum? What if the last things I saw were lines on my best friend’s right palm closing my eyes? McGarrah’s poems have appeared in many literary journals throughout the country. Most recently his work has been published in Cedar Hill Review, Comstock Review, Connecticut Review, Elixir Magazine, North American Review, and Brescia University’s annual anthology, Open 24 Hours. He is a graduate of the MFA in writing program at Vermont College and teaches creative writing and composition at USI, where he serves as managing editor of the Southern Indiana Review. He also is on the staff of USI’s annual RopeWalk Writers Retreat. Running the Voodoo Down may be purchased for $13. The book is scheduled for broader release in September. |
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