Jim's comments (member since Feb 24, 2009)

Jim's comments from the Published Authors group.

My newest book - When the Stars Go Dark - is now available through the publisher's website(http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/NewRe...),
on Amazon, and in many bookstores throughout the country.

Here's what Michael Waters, editor of Contemporary American Poetry, had to say about it:

I'm learning to keep some knowledge from myself, Jim McGarrah writes in a poem aptly titled "The Pursuit of Knowledge," and such gnarly wisdom infuses these poems that recognize not only 'the suffering that idles in us all', but that 'What connects us is our loneliness'. As Vietnam continues to provide context for a life given over now to the privacies of love, jazz, and humor, McGarrah searches for the single word, that one small word that might focus his abiding grief and transform it 'into the language / of air', into an aesthetic that affirms all things beautiful grow alone. These poems by one who reached out / and pulled the lightning inside are full of such profound consequence. When the Stars Go Dark is a disturbingly beautiful book.

Maria wrote: "Is anyone thinking of entering this competition? It's open to all writers who have previously been published (drama, poetry or prose) either in book form (not self-published) or in an established ..."

Maria,

The prize money is worth the effort. I've won two poetry book prizes in the U.S. and earned a lot less money for the whole book than is offered here for a short story. I'm sure compettion will be strong, but ultimately it depends on what the final judge prefers anyway. You will simply be among other good writers gambling that your story will be liked better by one person, or a small group of people, than the other stories. And, remember, even if you don't win it doesn't mean your story is bad.

No one has mentioned an obvious point, maybe out of a sense of political correctness. I've had five books published, four by respected small literary presses and one by Publish America. It is true that the literary presses have a much more stringent editorial process and thousands of titles are turned away for every one that's accepted. It's also true that I've had to give public readings all over the place, attend book fairs and writers conferences in order to promote ALL of the books. It's also true that copies were better proofed at publishers other than PA. However, the bottom line is, I couldn't get any other publishers interested in the novel that PA took and I wanted to get the story in print somewhere. I suspect that if everyone was being completely honest about their dealings with PA, they would also have to admit that no one else was beating down the door for a copy of the manuscript. Hemingway once said that the best tool a writer could have was his own built-in bull shit detector. There was a reason he said that.

I had a new book released last Monday. If you like poetry, you can go to the publisher's web site below, find my book cover, and click on the author's page. There are some sample poems there. Below are the blurbs.

Jim

When the Stars Go Dark

Order information: http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/books...

Main Street Rag Publishing House – now available.

“I’m learning to keep some knowledge from myself,” Jim McGarrah writes in a poem aptly titled “The Pursuit of Knowledge,” and such gnarly wisdom infuses these poems that recognize not only the “suffering that idles in us all,” but that “What connects us is our loneliness.” As Vietnam continues to provide context for a life given over now to the privacies of love, jazz, and humor, McGarrah searches for “the single word, that one small word” that might focus his abiding grief and transform it “into the language / of air,” into an aesthetic that affirms “all things beautiful grow alone.” These poems by one who “reached out / and pulled the lightning inside” are full of such profound consequence. When the Stars Go Dark is a disturbingly beautiful book.

Michael Waters, author of Darling Vulgarity, editor of Contemporary American Poetry

In his second book of poetry, When The Stars Go Dark, Jim McGarrah re-examines themes that have certainly become his: a youth of loss and luck, of destruction and distraction, and how, in middle age, one makes sense of this hunger to make sense. His return to Vietnam is a return to his father and to all that went askew. There is no easy closure here, yet his understanding that life survives finally on love and humor makes these poems border on what was once called wisdom. Read them and learn something wise about art and life.

Matthew Graham, author of A World Without End and 1946

From Vietnam to Biloxi to Guernica, following in the footsteps of James Wright in Anghiari or Rilke in Paris, spanning several decades, investigating the battlefields, back alleys and marketplaces that define us, Jim McGarrah’s poems are characterized by what he calls “the myth / of love that grants us grace beyond our own humanity.” In one poem a girl waves at the Luftwaffe pilot who will bomb her and her village, in another he remembers a hooker in Vietnam: in countless other poems similar characters emerge to give us back our own humanity through McGarrah’s skill at seeing the mythic and universal behind their individual situations. In one of the many moving poems here, a friend saves his life in Vietnam and he has to put the parts of his body into a body bag, and yet the scene takes on a transcendent meaning in its ending: “as the moon surrendered all its promise to the numb shadows of dawn.” Between the granting of grace and the surrendering of promise, between the silences and the music that permeate this great book, McGarrah finds a way to live “by sharing one dream from different worlds.”

Richard Jackson, author of Heartwall and Alive All Day