Description:
If poetry has the force to activate a shift of consciousness, or mystical experience, then Sheets, who "settled effortlessly into the mantle of modern mystic" in The Hour Wasp, continues to prove with this book that he is a true poetic force.
Brief description: Jason Adam Sheets comesfrom a lineage of Appalachianmusicians, songwriters, poets, and preachers. He earned aMaster's of Th eological Studiesin Th eopoetics from HarvardDivinity School, where herecently served as a TeachingFellow. His research focuseson how poetic language worksto evoke religious experience.Sheets' commitment to the fi eldcan be seen in his work as a poet and essayist. Books include V Verse Is I(AGP, 2025), A Madness of Blue Obsidian (AGP, 2022), Th e Hour Wasp(AGP, 2017), and Th eopoetica: An Anthology (AGP, 2022). New poemsappear in POETRY (March, 2024) and Modern Language Studies(Winter, 2025). A Pushcart Prize nominee, his writing was recentlyfeatured in Harvard Magazine and by Oxford University's ResearchCentre in the Humanities. He teaches for Poetry in America, inaffi liation with the eponymous PBS television series and in conjunctionwith the National Education Equity Lab, and has worked as a writingand publishing mentor for AWP's Writer to Writer mentorshipprogram. His work has been supported by Harvard University, PENAmerica, Poets & Writers Magazine, and Mass Cultural Council.177
Review Quotes:
"Alchemical and transformative, rooted deep in mystical traditions, these poems see and ask to be seen...Read [these poems] again and again."
- Janet Sylvester, author of And Not to Break