Synopsis
"...A wondrous ride of the imagination."—Cintia Santana (author of The Disordered Alphabet)
The poems in Derelict Days in That Derelict Town: New and Uncollected Poems are wide-ranging and far-reaching, covering the subjects of early death, gun violence, rural life, fathers/forefathers, myths and legends, and real and imaginary monsters.
"May's strong, often humorous, unique voice makes the ordinary and rural spaces—the plant life, cigarettes, and rust of Appalachia—surreal and mythic...We feel, ultimately, 'as if/ anything were possible/ there in the woods far from home.'" —Sara Moore Wagner, author of Lady Wing Shot and Hillbilly Madonna
"The poems in Derelict Days in That Derelict Town may leave you feeling as though Alan May sees things the rest of us walk right past, and afterwards you cannot help but wonder how you missed so much that is right there to be seen, heard, and felt...Alan May's imagination is a wonderful place to visit, and I kind of wish I lived there." —Jesse Graves, author of Merciful Days and Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine
"The quirky wrapping of these poems peels away to reveal that, against all odds, underneath the everyday horrors of the world, survives a tenderness, alive, capacious, nothing less than miraculous." —Cintia Santana, author of The Disordered Alphabet
"Alan May interrogates memory and imagination in this collection of arresting days, underscoring how the mundane and ordinary are anything but that, if we will only pay attention. But I'd be remiss if I suggested his poems are somber affairs, dour and dreary. His interrupted narratives are romps of dereliction, full of sly mischief and telling critiques." —Todd Davis, author of Ditch Memory: New & Selected Poems and Coffin Honey
"In unforgettable poems where allegory and fairy tale blend into the wonder of the untamable, torch-hunted being, we are asked, 'where is the lovely child / running through the forest where is he / who is miraculously healed?'" —Tyler Mills, author of Hawk Parable and Tongue Lyre
Alan May has published four books of poetry. His poems have appeared in Appalachian Places, The Hollins Critic, The Hong Kong Review, Plume, The Idaho Review, New Orleans Review, The New York Quarterly, and others. He lives in Knoxville, TN, and he hosts The Beat, Knox County Public Library's poetry podcast.
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