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American poet and writer
James Raymond Daniels (born 1956 in
Detroit ,
Michigan ) is an American poet and writer.
He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, the writer Kristin Kovacic.
Life and work
Daniels' writing style is as this:
Fine dust in the summer field of childhood
and the dark dank of lust
unfinished and forgotten feuds
vile taunts and sing-song slurs.
The tainted gentle stench of weeds
the absence of stately trees, adult supervision
the wide flat factories
the chemical tar of their parking lots.
The bicycles and t-shirts and greasy rags
and the foreign tenderness of girls
we shied away from, then dreamt about.
[1]
Daniels was on the faculty of the creative writing program at
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh ,
Pennsylvania , from 1981-2021, where he was the
Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor of English. He taught in the
Antioch University-Los Angeles low-residency MFA Program from 2007-2021. He currently teaches in the
Alma College low-residency MFA Program.
The majority of Daniels' papers are held in
Michigan State University Libraries
Special Collections .
Daniels' literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series.
[2] He won the inaugural
Brittingham Prize in Poetry in 1985 from the
University of Wisconsin–Madison . He was educated at
Alma College and
Bowling Green State University .
Works
Poetry
Factory Poems (Alma: Jack-in-the-Box Press, 1979)
On the Line (Menomonee Falls: Signpost Press, 1981)
Places/Everyone (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press , 1985)
The Long Ball (Pittsburgh: Pig-in-a-Poke Press, 1988)
Digger's Territory (Easthampton: Adastra Press, 1989)
Punching Out (Detroit:
Wayne State University Press , 1990)
Hacking It (St. Clair Shores: Ridgeway Press, 1992)
M-80 (Pittsburgh:
University of Pittsburgh Press , 1993)
Niagara Falls (Easthampton: Adastra Press, 1994)
Blessing the House (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993)
Brooding the Heartlands (Huron: Bottom Dog Press, 1998)
Blue Jesus (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2000)
Black Vinyl, Red Vinyl (Toledo: Aureole Press, 2001)
Greatest Hits (Johnstown: Pudding House Press, 2002)
Night with Drive-by Shooting Stars (Kalamazoo:
New Issues Press , 2002)
Digger's Blues , (Easthampton: Adastra Press, 2002)
Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003)
Street (Huron: Bottom Dog Press, 2005)
Now Showing (Burlington, Ontario: Aladada Books, 2006)
Revolt of the Crash-Test Dummies (Cheney: Eastern Washington University Press, 2007)
In Line for the Exterminator (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007)
From Milltown to Malltown (Grosse Pointe Farms: Marick Press, 2010)
Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2011)
All of the Above. (Easthampton: Adastra Press, 2011)
Birth Marks. (Rochester:
BOA Editions , 2013)
Apology to the Moon, (Midland: BatCat Press, 2015)
Rowing Inland, (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017)
Street Calligraphy (Bowling Green, KY: Steel Toe Books, 2017)
The Middle Ages (Santa Fe, NM: Red Mountain Press, 2018)
Gun/Shy (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2021)
The Human Engine at Dawn (South Bend: Wolfson Press, 2022)
Comment Card (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2024)
Fiction
No Pets , stories (Huron: Bottom Dog Press, 1999)
Detroit Tales , stories (East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press , 2003)
Mr. Pleasant , stories (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2007)
Trigger Man: More Tales of the Motor City , stories (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011)
Eight Mile High , stories (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2014)
The Perp Walk , stories (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2019)
The Luck of the Fall , stories (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2023)
Screenplays
No Pets , screenplay (director:
Tony Buba ) (Braddock: Braddock Films, 1994)
Dumpster , screenplay (director: John Rice) (Pittsburgh:
Three Rivers Film Festival , 2005)
Mr. Pleasant , screenplay (director: John Rice) (Pittsburgh: Three Rivers Film Festival, 2010)
The End of Blessings, screenplay (director: John Rice) (Pittsburgh: Three Rivers Film Festival, 2015)
Anthologies
The Carnegie Mellon Anthology of Poetry , (co-editor) poetry anthology (Pittsburgh:
Carnegie Mellon University Press , 1993)
Letters to America: Contemporary Poetry on Race , (editor) poetry anthology (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995)
American Poetry: The Next Generation , (co-editor) poetry anthology (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2000)
Challenges to the Dream: The Best of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Writing Awards , (editor) (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2017)
R E S P E C T: The Poetry of Detroit Music , (co-editor) anthology (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2020)
Sources
Contemporary Authors Online . The Gale Group, 2003. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000023043.
References
International National Other