Poetry. Michael Chitwood's seventh collection of poems is tremendously varied in shape and pace, from terse, reflexive aphorisms to rangy narratives. "No book about happiness has made me half as happy as I was made by POOR-MOUTH JUBILEE, Michael Chitwood's sublime book about sorrow. Chitwood gives sorrow all its due respect—and no more, so the book is often laugh-out funny in its wisdom. Don't pray for the sick, Chitwood instructs, 'They have their own problems.' And POOR-MOUTH JUBILEE pulses with the exhilaration of being alive"—Andrew Hudgins.

Author City: CHAPEL HILL, NC USA

Michael Chitwood was born in the foothills of the Virginia Blue Ridge in a small town named Rocky Mount. He grew up there, attending the county's only high school. He attended Emory and Henry College for my undergraduate degree, earning a BA in English in 1980. He worked as a science writer for a number of years at the University of Virginia Medical Center, eventually becoming assistant editor of the magazine Helix. While there, he also became a full-time student in the MFA program, receiving his degree in 1986. He moved to North Carolina that year and worked as a science and medical writer at Duke University Medical Center and then at Research Triangle Institute where he edited the magazine Hypotenuse. His books include the poetry collections POOR-MOUTH JUBILEE (Tupelo Press, 2010), SPILL (Tupelo Press, 2008), and The Weave Room (Chicago, 1998). Chitwood has also published two prose books, Finishing Touches: Selected Essays and Fiction (Tryon Publishing, 2006) and Hitting Below the Bible Belt: Baptist Voodoo, Blood Kin, Grandma's Teeth and Other Stories from the South (Down Home Press, 1998). After the birth of his son, he became a freelance writer and full-time Dad. And he became a commentator for North Carolina's WUNC affiliate of National Public Radio. He also began teaching at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is now a full-time visiting lecturer at UNC and lives with his wife and two children in Chapel Hill.

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"Here I Am, Lord" @ The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor