The Name Museum
Winner of the De Novo Poetry Prize
Available from C&R Press
Advance Commentary
In his stunning new book The Name Museum, Nick McRae reminds us that every name is, finally, a museum, an elegy, a narrative, and that all narrative becomes translation of place—and the collective voice of place—sometimes “mythic, bloody as a psalm.” McRae’s formal control always certain, ever graceful, these poems fuse harshness, longing, loss, spirituality, and beauty with the “sweat and rapture” of the very best poetry.
—Claudia Emerson, author of Secure the Shadow
The hard evidence we gather from history and local lore, from tradition and experience, determines what we believe—or so we are inclined by logic to believe. And yet we linger more over the truths that defy belief. It is a strange paradox but one Nick McRae finds everywhere he trains his vision. An email from God, an homage to a one-armed barber, snakes and trucks, saints and prophets: this is the grist of a wonderful book of poetry, half apocalypse and half love-song. It is also the work of a young poet skilled in his craft and clearly devoted to his art.
—Maurice Manning, author of The Gone and the Going Away
Nick McRae’s The Name Museum takes us from rural Georgia to the Czech Republic and back, but we are always still in the mindscape of the Bible, which McRae loves but with a certain finely textured wariness. McRae’s poems know as much of sweat as of rapture, and the poems are alive with a vivid connectedness to family, the world, and song itself. When McRae speaks of family “long buried,” he says: “But daddy taught me the fiddle, and mama / sang her hymns so sweet they shimmied / out her throat and into mine.” His music is true, rapturous, and enrapturing.
—Andrew Hudgins, author of American Rendering: New and Selected Poems
—Claudia Emerson, author of Secure the Shadow
The hard evidence we gather from history and local lore, from tradition and experience, determines what we believe—or so we are inclined by logic to believe. And yet we linger more over the truths that defy belief. It is a strange paradox but one Nick McRae finds everywhere he trains his vision. An email from God, an homage to a one-armed barber, snakes and trucks, saints and prophets: this is the grist of a wonderful book of poetry, half apocalypse and half love-song. It is also the work of a young poet skilled in his craft and clearly devoted to his art.
—Maurice Manning, author of The Gone and the Going Away
Nick McRae’s The Name Museum takes us from rural Georgia to the Czech Republic and back, but we are always still in the mindscape of the Bible, which McRae loves but with a certain finely textured wariness. McRae’s poems know as much of sweat as of rapture, and the poems are alive with a vivid connectedness to family, the world, and song itself. When McRae speaks of family “long buried,” he says: “But daddy taught me the fiddle, and mama / sang her hymns so sweet they shimmied / out her throat and into mine.” His music is true, rapturous, and enrapturing.
—Andrew Hudgins, author of American Rendering: New and Selected Poems
Reviews
How to Order
When you click here to order your copy of The Name Museum from the C&R Press website, your money directly supports the press by cutting out the middle-man. Direct orders are a great way to help support independent publishers like C&R.
You can also click here to purchase The Name Museum through Amazon. This may be the best ordering method if you require shipping to locations outside of North America.
You can also click here to purchase The Name Museum through Amazon. This may be the best ordering method if you require shipping to locations outside of North America.
Poems from The Name Museum
- The Name Museum
- Thanatophobia on Shinbone Valley Road
- Grandpa Killing a Rattler
- Moravia
- St. Nicholas of Lycia, Defender of Orthodoxy, Wonderworker
- Pessimist's Guide to Miracles
- Psalm 137
- Drawl
Mountain Redemption
Winner of the Black River Chapbook Competition
Available from Black Lawrence Press
Advance Commentary
In Nick McRae’s splendid Mountain Redemption, the contradictions of family and faith are hard to hold in balance. They are the fulcrum of a teeter totter that tips back and forth between passion and violence. But as he meditates on growing up in Georgia and the complexities of the faith he was born into, the poet himself is balanced, thoughtful, judicious—and loving. As he struggles to sustain that love, McRae sometimes borrows the cadences—large, passionate, and elegiac—of the prophets he knows so well: “Where, O Lord, is the home I only almost had— / mythic, bloody as a psalm in the mouths / of old and dying men who will take it / with them wholly when they go?”
—Andrew Hudgins, author of American Rendering: New and Selected Poems
These rich and strange but familiar and American poems remind us that the roots of the American language are in Jacobean English, the English codified in the King James Authorized Version of the Bible—a text often quoted in this book. In every mark of dialect, in every turn of a country phrase, we still hear a language that Shakespeare and Jonson would have recognized. But the experience—what would they have made of that? It is familiar to us, it is authentic, and this latest rendering also reminds us that our language originally redeemed the heart and soul of English. Nick McRae’s book prods us with the memory of that redemption. It is one to treasure.
—Mark Jarman, author of Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems
—Andrew Hudgins, author of American Rendering: New and Selected Poems
These rich and strange but familiar and American poems remind us that the roots of the American language are in Jacobean English, the English codified in the King James Authorized Version of the Bible—a text often quoted in this book. In every mark of dialect, in every turn of a country phrase, we still hear a language that Shakespeare and Jonson would have recognized. But the experience—what would they have made of that? It is familiar to us, it is authentic, and this latest rendering also reminds us that our language originally redeemed the heart and soul of English. Nick McRae’s book prods us with the memory of that redemption. It is one to treasure.
—Mark Jarman, author of Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems
Reviews
How to Order
When you click here to order Mountain Redemption from Black Lawrence Press, your money directly supports the press by cutting out the middle-man.
From the editor: "Every time a book is purchased from the Black Lawrence Press website instead of from another retailer, our profit jumps by a factor somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5. We know that we are a small company and that our website isn’t as slick as Amazon’s, so we are so grateful when customers come to us to make their purchases. We are also very appreciative when customers place pre-orders with us instead of with another retailer. When a customer pre-orders a book with Amazon, Black Lawrence Press may have to wait up to 6 months to receive those funds. When the order is placed with us, not only do we receive a much better profit, but we also get the funds right away. This makes a big difference to a little press like us."
From the editor: "Every time a book is purchased from the Black Lawrence Press website instead of from another retailer, our profit jumps by a factor somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5. We know that we are a small company and that our website isn’t as slick as Amazon’s, so we are so grateful when customers come to us to make their purchases. We are also very appreciative when customers place pre-orders with us instead of with another retailer. When a customer pre-orders a book with Amazon, Black Lawrence Press may have to wait up to 6 months to receive those funds. When the order is placed with us, not only do we receive a much better profit, but we also get the funds right away. This makes a big difference to a little press like us."
Poems from Mountain Redemption
- Mountain Redemption
- Genesis
- Joseph Van Gilreath (1922-1990)
- Persimmon
- Gutting the Farmhouse Upon Grandfather's Death from Alzheimer's
- Apple
Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets
Available from Sundress Publications
Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets, the first anthology of its kind, seeks to give the best Quaker poets writing today a voice in contemporary letters. Many anthologies of writing from other spiritual traditions have been published in recent years, and this Quaker collection will be an important addition to the conversation. The poets presented in Gathered come from all points on the Quaker cultural spectrum. There are Quakers from all over the United States and Quakers from abroad. There are liberal Quakers and conservative Quakers. There are lifelong Quakers, Quakers from hybrid spiritual backgrounds, and those who were once part of Quaker society but have since moved on down other paths.
While all of these poets have been touched in some way by the Quaker way of life, the work presented here is not religious or devotional in the traditional sense. Many poems address Quaker culture and spirituality, but they question those traditions, taking a broader view of the human condition and the experience of living in our complex, often troubling world, where there are no easy answers.
While all of these poets have been touched in some way by the Quaker way of life, the work presented here is not religious or devotional in the traditional sense. Many poems address Quaker culture and spirituality, but they question those traditions, taking a broader view of the human condition and the experience of living in our complex, often troubling world, where there are no easy answers.
Reviews
How to Order
When you click here to order your copy of Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets from the Sundress Publications online store, your money directly supports the press by cutting out the middle-man. Direct orders are a great way to help support small, nonprofit publishers like Sundress.
You can also click here to purchase Gathered through Amazon.
You can also click here to purchase Gathered through Amazon.