Newswise — With three award-winning poetry chapbooks to his credit, Jeff Mann of Virginia Tech's English department has now published a full book of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine.
The book includes the poetry from two of Mann's highly acclaimed chapbooks, which are now out of print. Diane Wakoski, author of Argonaut Rose, called Mann's Flint Shards from Sussex "a book of lyric intensity, focusing on love through the radiance of martyrdom and sacrifice" and said that, in the chapbook, Mann "immerses himself in the dark beauty of romantic loss, grieving, and final acceptance." Flint Shards won the 1999 Gival Press Poetry Prize.
Bliss is a moving collection of 18 poems that explore emotions inextricably woven into the powerful, sensory images of nature. Jan-Mitchell Sherrill , author of Blind Leading the Blind and Friend of the Groom, said Mann's "fiercely lyrical poems ignite us and make us remember what it means to 'experience' a poem as we read it." Edward Falco, author of Acid, said Mann is "a poet to treasure both for the wealth of his language and the generosity of his spirit." Bliss won the 1997 Stonewall Chapbook Competition.
Bones Washed with Wine was published by Gival Press, an award-winning independent publishing house that publishes the work of poets and authors "who demonstrate quality and whose work has a message, be it philosophical or social."
Mann is a native of Southwest Virginia and has won several other prizes for his poetry. They include first place in the 2000 Literal Latte Food Verse Award, the 1999 Poetic Matrix Chapbook Series award for his chapbook Mountain Fireflies, second place in Now and Then's 2002 Appalachian Poetry Competition, and first place in the Key West Writing Contest in Poetry, for which his work will appear in Key West: A Collection.
Mann's poems and essays have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including Christopher Street, Poet Lore, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Appalachian Heritage, Scottish Life, and BlackWater Review. His fiction and non-fiction have also been published in Rebel Yell: Stories by Contemporary Southern Gay Authors and The Harrington Gay Men's Fiction Quarterly. Bones Washed with Wine is available from http://barnesandnoble.com, Gival Press in Arlington, Va. (http://www.givalpress.com), and other bookstores.
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