The poems in Gun/Shy deal with the emotional weight of making do. Tinged with both the regrets and wisdom of aging, Jim Daniels's poems measure the wages of love in a changing world with its vanishing currency. He explores the effects of family work-putting children to bed, leading parents to their final resting places-and what is lost and gained in those exertions. Childhood and adolescence are examined, through both looking back on his own childhood and on that of his children. While his personal death count rises, Daniels reflects on his own mortality. He finds solace in small miracles-his mother stretching the budget to feed five children with ""hamburger surprise"" and potato skins, his children collecting stones and crabapples as if they were gold coins. Daniels, as he always has, carries the anchor of Detroit with him, the weight both a comfort and a burden. He explores race, white privilege, and factory work. Eight Mile Road, a fraught border, pulses with division, and the echoes of music, singing through Detroit's soiled but solid heart, resonate in these poems. His first long poem in many years, ""Gun/Shy,"" centers the book. Through the personas of several characters, Daniels dives into America's gun culture and the violent gulf between the fearful and the feared. Throughout, he seeks connection in likely and unlikely places: a river rising after spring rain and searchlights crossing the night sky. Comets and cloudy skies. Cement ponds and the Garden of Eden. Adolescence and death. Wounds physical and psychic. Disguises and more disguises. These are the myths we memorize to help us sleep at night, those that keep us awake and trembling. Daniels's accessible language, subtlety, and deftness make this collection one that belongs on every poetry reader's shelf.

A poet of the working-class and city streets, Jim Daniels's fourteenth poetry collection travels from Detroit to Ohio to Pittsburgh, from one post-industrial city to another, across jobs and generations. Daniels focuses on the urban landscape and its effects on its inhabitants as they struggle to establish community on streets hissing with distrust and random violence.

"Out here, silence scrapes its knuckles
in an attempt at prayer."

Jim Daniels is Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Melon. Poetry editor for the scholarly journal "Labor: A Working Class History of America," his awards include two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and the Brittingham Prize for Poetry.

In his fourth book of poems, Jim Daniels visits the sites of domestic faith-Catholic schools, sex and marriage, childbirth-in an attempt to witness a world believing in. A sense of search unites these problems, whether they take place on the cement slabs of a 1950s Detroit suburb or on the hillside cometary of an Italian village. In their search for hope, grace, and decency in the small dramas of an individual life, the poems of Blessing the House became larger, more overtly political.

While there have been countless books written about Detroit, none have captured its incredible musical history like this one. This collection of poems and lyrics covers numerous genres including jazz, blues, doo-wop, Motown, classic rock, punk, hip-hop, and techno. Detroit artists have forged the paths in many of these genres, producing waves of creative energy that continue to reverberate across the country and around the world. While documenting and celebrating this part of Detroit’s history, this book captures the emotions that the music inspired in its creators and in its listeners. The range of contributors speaks to the global impact of Detroit’s music scene - Grammy winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and poet laureates all come together in this rich and varied anthology, including such icons as Eminem, June Jordan, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Rita Dove, Jack White, Robbie Robertson, Paul Simon, Nikki Giovanni, Philip Levine, Sasha Frere-Jones, Patricia Smith, Billy Bragg, Andrei Codrescu, Toi Derricotte, and Cornelius Eady.

American Poetry: The Next Generation is an anthology of the following poets, all born since 1960, who have published at least one book with a trade, university, or independent publisher:
Rick Agran, Elizabeth Alexander, Sherman Alexie, Rick Alley, Alice Anderson, Daniel Anderson, Talvikki Ansel, Aaron Anstett, Craig Arnold, David Baratier, David Barber, Paul Beatty, Joshua Beckman, Erin Belieu, Molly Bendall, Dina Ben-Lev, Jacqueline Berger, Carole Bernstein, Mark Bibbins, David Biespiel, Richard Blanco, Joe Bolton, Gaylord Brewer, Joel Brouwer, Stephanie Brown, Lisa Buscani, Anthony Butts, Rafael Campo, Nick Carbo, Kenneth Carroll, Keith Cartwright, Hayan Charara, Lisa D. Chavez, Justin Chin, A. V. Christie, Joshua Clover, Lisa Coffman, Nicole Cooley, Lesley Dauer, Christopher Davis, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Connie Deanovich, Mark DeCarteret, Juan Delgado, Tom Devaney, Elizabeth Dodd, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Denise Duhamel, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Heid E. Erdrich, Sascha Feinstein, Lisa Fishman, Nick Flynn, Ruth Forman, Kenny Fries, Joanna Fuhrman, Suzanne Gardinier, Steve Gehrke, Timothy Geiger, Lisa Glatt, Douglas Goetsch, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Debra Gregerman, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Beth Gylys, James Harms, Terrance Hayes, Brian Henry, Bob Hicok, Mary Crockett Hill, Ellen Hinsey, Christine Hume, Austin Hummell, Bruce Jackson, J. L. Jacobs, Jonathan Johnson, Judy Jordan, Allison Joseph, Julia Kasdorf, Laura Kasischke, David Keplinger, Ger Killeen, James Kimbrell, Gerry LaFemina, Lance Larsen, Dana Levin, Kate Light, Fatima Lim-Wilson, Beth Lisick, Timothy Liu, M. Loncar, Joel Long, Peter Markus, David Marlatt, Valerie Martinez, Khaled Mattawa, Ellyn Maybe, Shara McCallum, Jeffrey McDaniel, Campbell McGrath, Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Paula McLain, Mark McMorris, Constance Meritt, Malena Morling, Julie Moulds, Rick Mulkey, Maggie Nelson, Rick Noguchi, Jennifer O'Grady, Joe Osterhaus, Frankie Paino, Alan Michael Parker, G. E. Patterson, V. Penelope Pelizzon, Tracy Philpot, D. A. Powell, Kevin Powell, Rohan B. Preston, Kevin Prufer, Charles Rafferty, Heather Ramsdell, Claudia Rankine, Joanna Rawson, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Catie Rosemurgy, Sarah Rosenblatt, Sarah Ruden, John Rybicki, Mary Ann Samyn, Margot Schilpp, Ruth L. Schwartz, Lisa Sewell, Patty Seyburn, Brenda Shaughnessy, Reginald Shepherd, Martha Silano, Rose Solari, Angela Sorby, Philip Stephens, Adrienne Su, Virgil Suarez, Larissa Szporluk, Richard Tayson, J. Tarin Towers, Ann Townsend, Pimone Triplett, Sam Truitt, Alpay Ulku, Reetika Vazirani, Anthony R. Vigil, Karen Volkman, David Scott Ward, Thom Ward, Joe Wenderoth, Rachel Wetzsteon, Susan M. Whitmore, Crystal Williams, Lisa Williams, Greg Williamson, Steve Wilson, Christian Wiman, Suzanne Wise, Mark Wunderlich, M. Wyrebek, Kevin Young, Katayoon Zandvakili

"An outstanding piece of scholarship and a welcome contribution to the field, this collection of neglected but powerful poetry speaks to our own time as much as it does to its own era."
---Nicholas Coles, University of Pittsburgh "Opens up a dramatic new aspect of American literature for study, discussion, and enjoyment. The collection of poems is original and engaging and is sure to be useful for classes in literature, American history, and labor studies."
---Alan Wald, University of Michigan "You Work Tomorrow" provides a glimpse into a relatively unknown aspect of American literary and labor history---the remarkable but largely forgotten poems published in union newspapers during the turbulent 1930s. Members of all unions---including autoworkers, musicians, teachers, tenant farmers, garment workers, artists, and electricians---wrote thousands of poems during this period that described their working, living, and political conditions. From this wealth of material, John Marsh has chosen poetry that is both aesthetically appealing and historically relevant, dispelling the myth that labor poetry consisted solely of amateurish and predictable sloganeering. A foreword by contemporary poet Jim Daniels is followed by John Marsh's substantive introduction, detailing the cultural and political significance of union poetry. John Marsh is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Coordinator of The Odyssey Project, a year-long, college-accredited course in the humanities offered at no cost to adults living below or slightly above the federal poverty level. A volume in the series Class: Culture

Letters to America features the work of poets who have had the courage to write about race with honesty and passion. Speakign from the experience of Black, Native American, Asian, Arabic, Indian, Hispanic, and white culture, their diverse voices unite in a dialogue of poems which acknowledge and celebrate our differences while exploring America's shameful history of racial intolerance. The poets in this anthology include Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Bukowski, Joy Harjo, Langstong Hughes, Sharon Olds, James Wright, Etheridge Knight, Gary Soto, Garrett Kaoru Hongo, Audre Lorde, David Ignatwo, and others.

In M-80, his third book of poems, Jim Daniels explores the sharp edges of urban life. His characters struggle for survival in the face of rising urban violence, racial tension, and a crumbling economy. The collection is named for one of the most dangerous fireworks found on city streets - an apt metaphor for an urban world where the fuse is always lit.

Daniels' second book of poetry takes readers inside an auto factory with Digger, a young man whose initial reaction of shock and dismay at the difficult working conditions prompts him to find ways to cope with the dehumanization he experiences there. The book is a series of tightly woven poems that play off one another so that the book accumulates tension and energy as it progresses. Daniels treats his characters and their work with respect, giving them a dignity that factory condition deny them. Opting for blunt, straightforward language, Daniels does not try to "poeticize" the factory but rather injects the factory into his poetry.

In Line for the Exterminator is the final collection in Jim Daniels' trilogy of books explaining the urban working-class landscape. Daniels, who grew up near the Eight Mile Road boundary between Detroit and suburban Warren, Michigan, walks the razor's edge of the borderline in this collection, examining complex issues of race and class that are a part of daily life there.The title poem, ""In Line for the Exterminator,"" sets the ironic tone for this collection, examining a group of people waiting in line for a sinister-sounding amusement-park ride. Daniels presents blue-collar culture both in and out of the workplace, showing its profound influence on the lives of workers and their families. As in ""Places/Everyone and M-80"", Daniels uses his character Digger to show the effects of work on outside life, following Digger into retirement from his factory job and into his struggle to find a new future. In addition, Daniels deals frankly with the specter of urban violence that haunts the community and threatens to tear it apart. Local heroes, from professional wrestler the Sheik to the contemporary rapper Eminem, also appear as touchstones for the community's complex view of itself.How do ordinary citizens sustain hope and dignity in the face of economic and societal upheaval? How do people avoid the mirages offered by drugs and alcohol, or the intoxication of guns and crime? In ""Line for the Exterminator"" offers no easy answers but presents searing portraits of individuals struggling with these questions and finding small victories and moments of consolation in their everyday lives. Those interested in poetry, depictions of working-class city life, and Detroit social history will enjoy this significant volume.

Poetry. Jim Daniels' latest collection bears witness to a life boat mis- and well-spent; to the family, remembered and new; to the melancholy pull of drugs and casual sex; to growing up; and to the only tenable way of growing old, which is to embrace every small joy even as one laments its brevity. Indeed, Night with Drive-By Shooting Stars rages not against the dying of light but the dying fall itself-against poetic and existential complacency. "Louder, kids," says Daniels in the beautiful "Cold Seed": "daddy's dying."

"An outstanding piece of scholarship and a welcome contribution to the field, this collection of neglected but powerful poetry speaks to our own time as much as it does to its own era."
---Nicholas Coles, University of Pittsburgh "Opens up a dramatic new aspect of American literature for study, discussion, and enjoyment. The collection of poems is original and engaging and is sure to be useful for classes in literature, American history, and labor studies."
---Alan Wald, University of Michigan "You Work Tomorrow" provides a glimpse into a relatively unknown aspect of American literary and labor history---the remarkable but largely forgotten poems published in union newspapers during the turbulent 1930s. Members of all unions---including autoworkers, musicians, teachers, tenant farmers, garment workers, artists, and electricians---wrote thousands of poems during this period that described their working, living, and political conditions. From this wealth of material, John Marsh has chosen poetry that is both aesthetically appealing and historically relevant, dispelling the myth that labor poetry consisted solely of amateurish and predictable sloganeering. A foreword by contemporary poet Jim Daniels is followed by John Marsh's substantive introduction, detailing the cultural and political significance of union poetry. John Marsh is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Coordinator of The Odyssey Project, a year-long, college-accredited course in the humanities offered at no cost to adults living below or slightly above the federal poverty level. A volume in the series Class: Culture