Unusually Grand Ideas

James Davis May is the author of the poetry collection Unquiet Things and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing. He lives in Macon, Georgia, where he directs the creative writing program at Mercer University.

"James Davis May's second book begins quietly, chronicling a series of losses, then escalates into a harrowingly exact, artfully rendered portrait of depression: 'I needed a darkness I'd probably survive / to escape the one I knew I wouldn't.' May nails the paralyzing character of his illness and somehow manages, through art and ardor, to negotiate with despair, climbing toward a position that acknowledges darkness but does not deny hope. 'Forgive me, Love, my difficulties with joy, ' he writes to his young daughter, and to himself and his grateful readers, 'sometimes the world doesn't disappoint.' Unusually Grand Ideas is wrenching, genuine, and superb."--Mark Doty