“Wesley McNair is a kind of Chekhov of American poetry.”
—Ted Kooser, Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laureate
Wesley McNair offers a full vision of human life, both its hardships and its rich possibilities. Opening with poems about growing up with family conflict in a New England of broken farms and towns, McNair explores the limits of personal wishes and American dreams. Here too are haunting encounters with ghost selves, the dead, and the gangsters in old movies; the poignant hopefulness of comb-overs; and a transcendent series of lyrics that celebrate self-acceptance and the spiritual dimension of “life on the ground.”
McNair’s poems are full of people with lives like his own, like ours, ordinary lives that are incredibly unique and complex.
—Louis McKee, Library Journal
He is a much loved Maine poet grounded in small town rural life. He has a distinguished career in Maine and nationally, his poems are accessible to a wide demographic and he is one of the great storytellers in contemporary poetry.
—Donna McNeil, Director of the Maine Arts Commission