The Book of Sharks

"Rob Carney's trenchant, probing poems circle around the self, not so much sensing blood but, perhaps even more dangerously, searching for understanding. Part confession, part documentation, part meditation, these smartly crafted lyrics explore how and why we have and have not allowed sharks (metaphors for so many things) to swim into our lives. This is a major effort from a talented poet."--Dean Rader

ROB CARNEY is the author of nine books of poems, most recently The Book of Drought (Texas Review Press 2024) and Call and Response (Black Lawrence Press 2021). He is a recipient of the XJ Kennedy Prize in Poetry, the Milton Kessler Memorial Prize, the Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Foundation Award for Poetry, and he has written a featured series called “ Old Roads, New Stories” for the award-winning online journal Terrain.org for the last nine years. Favorite drink: coffee. Favorite animal: the Great White. He is a Professor of English at Utah Valley University and lives in Salt Lake City.