“It is hardly usual for a first book to contain so many poems that bowl one over with the power and authority . . . a very fine book. ”—X.J. Kennedy

Although Fred Chappell has long been recognized as a novelist of talent and achievement, his poetry has been known to only a few because he has chosen to publish little. Now, in this collection, his work becomes widely available for the first time.

The subjects of these poems range from the poet’s love for his wife and son to that hallowed American institution, the skin flick; from baseball to blues. From “Trios II” to the slaughter of pigs. Their forms vary from short lyrics, often humorous or ironic, to longer narratives, more serious and intense. All in all, it is a stunning performance by a consummate artist in his first appearance.

Fred Chappell is the author of a dozen other books of verse, including Backsass and Spring Garden; two story collections; and eight novels. A native of Canton in the mountains of western North Carolina, he taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1964 to 2004. He is the winner of, among other awards, the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, Aiken Taylor Award, T. S. Eliot Prize, and Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry eight times over.