Poetry. Haunted by Cocteau's version of the Orpheus myth since 1968, Craig Watson collected a palimpsest of renderings, fragments, and images from the Orphic tradition for the next 40 years. In 2008, he returned to these materials in the wake of a near fatal stroke. The result is SLEEPWALKING WITH ORPHEUS, a constellation of voices that recount the legendary singer's continuous journey through the realms that compose a life. In "Last Man Standing," Watson's post-apocalyptic poem in SECRET HISTORIES, the protagonist asserts: "I'm not dead yet." SLEEPWALKING WITH ORPHEUS takes up that proposition, cannily altering its terms of address to reflect what Watson calls "the interrogative imperative."

Author City: JAMESTOWN, RI USA

Craig Watson is the author of eleven books and chapbooks. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous literary journals since 1982. His recent book SECRET HISTORIES (Burning Deck, 2007) completes a trilogy that includes FREE WILL (Roof Books, 2000) and TRUE NEWS (Instance Press, 2002). Among other considerations, these books traverse the languages and silences that by turn construct and erase history, even as its actual subjects struggle to endure. His latest collection, SLEEPWALKING WITH ORPHEUS, was published by Shearsman Books in 2011.