End of Childhood

Wayne Miller’s books of poetry include Only the Senses Sleep, The Book of Props, The City, Our City, Post-, and We the Jury. His awards include a William Carlos Williams Award, two Colorado Book Awards, an NEA Translation Fellowship, six individual awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship to Northern Ireland. He has co-translated two books from Albanian—most recently Moikom Zeqo’s Zodiac, shortlisted for the PEN Center USA Award in Translation—and has co-edited three books, most recently Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century. He lives in Denver, where he co-directs the Unsung Masters Series, teaches at the University of Colorado Denver, and edits Copper Nickel.

Praise for The End of Childhood“A compelling addition to a certain generational approach to fatherhood as poetic subject.”—Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Poetry“From Anchorage to Belfast, to the capital of Albania and the Netherlands, Miller illuminates how late-stage capitalism and violence have conspired to bring about a loss of innocence, or at least a marked shift from what once was… . [T]his book is so much more than a literal lament for childhood… . It is about waking up to our adult duty to protect and preserve the stability of life … to respect our collective responsibility to each other, to learn from what has happened and prepare for what is to come; to resist the corruption of our present’s most ignominious politics, and instead, to see them clearly, to answer with strength, erudition, and a heart that refuses erasure.”—John McCarthy, Rhino“Miller continues to write with intelligence and devastating clarity.”—David Starkey, The Santa Barbara Independent“[B]rimming with lyrical prowess . . . Wayne Miller’s adept, not obvious, application of poetics creates accessible, yet complex, poems that explore, through memory and experience, the sometimes overwhelming angst of living in a time where dystopia looms around every corner, but also provides the gleaming brightness of love, joy, and beauty . . .”—Shawn Pavey, Cultural Daily“Wayne Miller’s sixth book of poems is his most moving and most spooky. Permeated by the damages of history, the brutalities of modernity, and the turmoil of consciousness, Miller’s poems are haunted into a gray lyric radiance. Often situated in wintry aftermaths, the poems have the lapidary quality of last-ditch communications. Still, despite its starting point in what’s dire, Miller’s work longs for the ‘shared breath’ of meaning, even if the only possible meaning is fragmented and oblique. These poems achieve the beautiful, uncanny fusing that Miller defines as poetry itself: ‘One mouth moving / another.’”—Rick Barot, author of Moving the Bones“Wayne Miller possesses the range and wisdom of the timeless artist. Like Berryman, he personalizes the genre of cultural critique; like Auden, he historicizes the genre of autobiography. From this book’s opening pages we encounter the ripeness of the poet’s mind and the extent of his delight and disappointment in the world. I am in awe of this collection of poems, from its deft use of syntax to its dexterous lines and stanzas, from its command of both the short and long form to its expert narratives and fully landed endings: these reasons and more make Miller, to my mind, a true poet’s poet, a poet to learn from, emulate, and trust.”—Kathy Fagan, author of Bad HobbyPast Praise for Wayne Miller"One of the most outstanding American poets of his generation."—The Irish Independent"A singular figure in American poetry."—Colorado Review"Miller makes a vast impact using the smallest stroke—he is careful and suspenseful, wary of flamboyance."—The New Yorker"Negotiates a contemporary world . . . in terms both intimate and cultural, bereaved and entranced, clear-eyed and restless . . ."—Citation for the UNT Rilke Prize"Among the best poets in the USA."—Notre Dame Review"Miller's poems are beacons."—Booklist