Resisting Elegy On Grief and Recovery

On February 7,2004, Joel and his Iranian-American wife, Susan Atefat Peckham, winner of a National Poetry Series award, were driving from Aqaba to Amman, Jordan before the start of their Fulbright teaching fellowships. With them were their two sons and Susan s mother. Suddenly, partway through the drive, a sand truck careened off the road and into their car, killing his wife and their eldest son, Cyrus. Joel was left temporarily crippled and suffering from intense neuropathy.

Joel Peckham is an assistant professor of English at the University of Cincinnati-Clermont. In 2003-2004, he won a Fulbright teaching scholarship at the University of Jordan, and in 2011, he was a finalist for both the New Rivers MVP Prize and the Sol Books Prize. He is also the author of three books of poetry: Nightwalking, The Heat of What Comes, and Movers and Shakers, and his essays on grief and recovery have appeared in a number of publications. Joel lives with his son, Darius, and his second wife, Rachael, in Huntington, WV.