Chapel of Inadvertent Joy

Back Cover

POETRY “Reading Jeffrey McDaniel’s gorgeously dark and utterly compelling Chapel of Inadvertent Joy reminds me that he is probably the most important poet in America. The book in your hands was written by a master of metaphor and a poet of huge imagination and fierce ingenuity, a fine antidote to realism. Get this voice in your head.” —Major Jackson “What strikes me most about Jeffrey McDaniel’s surrealist atmospherics in Chapel of Inadvertent Joy is his ability to bring us together, often ‘half-naked, with the rest of America, / wearing only a credit card and cashmere scarf.’ Better than the vast majority of poets writing today, he can make a metaphor out of anything—the Olympic diver in the eyebrows of Kate Winslet, the fire licking the hips of the Pacific shore, and the dresses worn by teenage girls made from the skins of apples. With Dante and Tsvetaeva under his arm, he chronicles the emotions that jolt us as we stare into the abyss and pulls us away when we’ve seen enough. Funny and melancholic, Chapel of Inadvertent Joy is a deeply moving book.” —Khaled Mattawa JEFFREY MCDANIEL has published four books of poetry: The Endarkenment, The Splinter Factory, The Forgiveness Parade, and Alibi School. His poems have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and Best American Poetry 1994 and 2010. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, he teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. PITT POETRY SERIES University of Pittsburgh Press www.upress.pitt.edu Cover photo: Miranda Lichtenstein Cover design: Joel W. Coggins Photo by Caroline Kaye ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-6260-1 ISBN 10: 0-8229-6260-8 $15.95 ...