Jeffrey McDaniel – författare

The poet employs colloquial diction, references pop and classical culture, and travels at 1000 miles per hour in his fourth collection. For those who think contemporary poetry is about abject confessions, vacation in Provence and opaque ‘academicisms,’ McDaniel is an intro to a new world.

"Reading Jeffrey McDaniel's gorgeously dark and utterly compelling Chapel of Inadvertent Joy reminds me that he is probably the most important poet in America. The book in your hands was written by a master of metaphor and a poet of huge imagination and fierce ingenuity, a fine antidote to realism. Get this voice in your head."—Major Jackson

In his new collection, Jeffrey McDaniel confronts the insular and expansive qualities of loss. With electric language and surrealistic imagery, McDaniel’s poems deliver the quotidian elements of middle-age life while weaving us in & out of childhood and adulthood alongside body and mind. The tragic and life affirming share the same page and the same world, reminding us how close corruption can be to innocence; domesticity to fantasy; aging to youth. Jonathan We are underwater off the coast of Belize.The water is lit up even though its darkas if there are illuminated seashellsscattered on the ocean floor.We’re not wearing oxygen tanks,yet staying underwater for long stretches.We are looking for the body of the boywe lost. Each year he grows a little older.Last December I opened his knapsackand stuck in a plastic box of carrots. Even though we’re underwater, we heara song playing over a policeman’s radio.He comes to the shoreline to parkand eat midnight sandwiches, his headlightsfanning out across the harbor.And I hold you close, apple of my closed eye,red dance of my opened fist.