SPECTRA Reading Series: Jeffrey McDaniel at Rozz-Tox -- April 23.
Thursday, April 23, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
The co-editor of the Pitt Poetry Series and a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, esteemed author Jeffrey McDaniel will be the featured guest in the latest SPECTRA Reading Series event hosted by the Midwest Writing Center, his April 23 engagement at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox treating literature lovers to an evening of poetry, an open-mic event, and a community writing hour.
Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Thin Ice Olympics (Write Bloody, 2022) Other books include: Holiday in the Islands of Grief (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020), Chapel of Inadvertent Joy (Pittsburgh, 2013), The Endarkenment (Pittsburgh, 2008), The Splinter Factory (Manic D Press, 2002), The Forgiveness Parade (Manic D, 1998), and Alibi School (Manic D, 1995). McDaniel’s poems have appeared in numerous places, including The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The New York Times, and Best American Poetry 1994, 2010, and 2019. Recipient of an NEA fellowship, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
McDaniel received an MFA from George Mason University in 1993, where he studied with C.K. Williams, Susan Tichy, and Carolyn Forche. In grad school, he was the poetry editor for the school's national literary magazine, Phoebe, in 1991–92, and the editor in 1992-93. He was also active in a student performance troupe, Poetry Theater (founded by Chris Carpenter), where grad students presented their poems in a theatrical context. In grad school, McDaniel first began publishing poems in magazines, including Ploughshares, Fine Madness, Exquisite Corpse, and Willow Springs. In his final year of grad school, he also got involved with the nascent poetry slam movement at the 15 Minutes Club in Washington DC. He was on a team (with Silvana Straw among others) to represent DC at the 1993 National Poetry Slam in San Francisco. He also represented Washington DC at the 1994 and '95 National Poetry Slams and Venice Beach (California) in the 1998 National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas.
As stated by Joan Wasser, a.k.a. singer/songwriter Joan As Police Woman: "Jeffrey McDaniel’s poetry cures my loneliness. So much so that I dreaded reaching the end of Thin Ice Olympics. He’s always been a master of metaphor. With this volume he is also a master of mining the marrow of buried bones; buried because they were once too dangerous. Unearthed, McDaniel reframes them both with tenderness and what I refer to as 'diagonal' humor. No artifice, no fancy shit, just truth; and this truth is the friend I’m always searching for."
The April 23 SPECTRA Reading Series event with special guest Jeffrey McDaniel will begin at 6 p.m. with a community writing hour followed by a 7 p.m. open mic, and the author will deliver his featured reading at 8 p.m. alongside several additional area writers. Participation in the evening's events is free, and more information is available by contacting the Midwest Writing Center at (309)732-7330 and MWCQC.org, and Rozz-Tox at (309)200-0978 and RozzTox.com.
