Oberlin College Press has always championed the prose poem, publishing such stellar examples as Russell Edson's The Tunnel, Beckian Fritz Goldberg's Egypt from Space, and Jeffrey Jeffrey Skinner's 2016 prize-winner Chance Divine. James Haug's Riverain is a masterful addition to that list. From the deadpan pastoral of "Cows Are a Good Idea" to quizzical fables like "Silent River," this collection is mysterious, hilarious, and utterly unpredictable. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate described Haug's previous collection as "marvelous poems, ones that help us see what might have been or could have been, in a world full of light." These new prose poems are equally revelatory, illuminating the natural world, contemporary culture, and New England metaphysics in witty and heartbreaking ways.

James Haug's poems abound in the mysterious, in the world gone wrong by inches. The details are always there, slightly askew, so believable you accept them against your will. And wake up in a world of insight and conviction. These are marvelous poems, ones that help us see what might have been or could have been, in a world full of light. - James Tate In James Haug's poems, precision of observation and plain speaking comfortably coexist with authentic strangeness, in a way I feel is deeply true. The speakers in these poems are friendly, familiar and knowing, but also a bit distanced; they seem also always oriented towards the mysterious, and therefore towards possibility. I love reading these poems, laughing, feeling silent, and drifting off into what feel to me like very real lucid necessary dreams. - Matthew Zapruder Sometimes we go looking for poetry because we are looking for a conversation that defies predictable directions. In James Haug's poems we are so lucky to be in the presence of a generous, complex, surprising, and lucid collection. We are steadily sure of why this poetry is here. We're grateful, we're enriched, we're sustained by it. - Dara Wier

When Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Mississippi State University, was founded in 1878, it was lacking what President Stephen D. Lee called the "mechanical feature." Devoted entirely to offering coursework in general education and agriculture, the college was not able to provide students with courses in technical subjects until 1891, when the curriculum began to include courses in basic woodworking and metal machining. Electrical engineering was added in 1892, and in later years departments of civil, industrial, petroleum, biological, aerospace, and nuclear engineering were developed as the demand arose and resources became available.

Today the MSU college of engineering is nationally acclaimed as a research center for the study of magnetohydrodynamics, computer-assisted fluid- flow modeling, and composite materials. In 1990 it was named a National Science Foundation Research Center.

This volume tracing illustrious history of the college of engineering focuses upon several themes. First is its struggle to gain adequate funding and to survivve in a rural state that showed little sympathy for industry. A second theme focuses on the problems of developing a curriculum and research program. The dilemma of conforming to national accreditation standards and accomodating the demands of Mississippians for practical education stirred long-term debates. A third theme involves a study of the intricacies in administering higher education in Mississippi.

This history of engineering education at MSU is one of the few books that examine the development of an engineering college at a mid-sized institution. Almost all others have focused upon large, well-funded schools. It is also the first full-scale history to detail the internal development of an academic unit in Mississippi.

This is a book for engineering educators, friends, alumni of Mississippi State University and the College of Engineering, and historians of technology.