Poetry. James Galvin's poems have zero percent body fat. His tightly controlled and detailed poems evoke measured optimism in a spare existential world where certain characters—"The Mastermind" and the "Members of the Board"—are recurring shadows. Like fables suggesting new truths, personal narratives and love poems intertwine to confront the various paradoxes of domestic life, art, and politics, and the line "All poems are love poems" leans hard against "Some poems are better off dead." In AS IS, both claim their hard-won place.

"James Galvin has a voice and a world, perhaps the two most difficult things to achieve in poetry"—The Nation

Author City: TIE SIDING, WY USA

James Galvin is a Wyoming rancher and on the permanent faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of six books of poetry, a novel, and the acclaimed memoir The Meadow. He lives in Tie Siding, Wyoming, and Iowa City, Iowa.

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Sean Patrick Hill @ Bookslut