REVIEWS FOR
CORRESPONDENCE IN D MINOR
REVIEWS
"James Dennis is grappling with regreat and longing, as well as amusing us and himself, frequently with irreverent humor. Dennis' work accomodates both 'skedaddle' and 'imprimatur in the same poem. The cleverness evident in these poems belies a humility, just a guy trying to do no harm, and maybe figure out houw to escape the cycles of history along the way. Dennis is skillful and inspired, both the artist and the technician."
"These poems reveal James Dennis' "dry, wry humor, and his penchant for mixing dazzling displays of erudition and vivid description with just plain talk. In his impressive debut collection of poetry, Dennis uses those same gifts to speak strongly against the currents of chaos in our time, and in times past when power, authority and knowledge were abused in the name of God and country. He casts a warm, wise and meditative eye on questions of life and death, love and hatred, war and peace, faith and doubt, that become more acute as the mind and heart mature, and takes the measure of what it means to be human."
—San Antonio Express News
"A beautiful collection."
—Stories from Texas
—
AWARDS
Named one of the "Best Books of 2016"
Selected for the HOW International Book Design Award for 2016
Selected as a Finalist for the Julie Suck Poetry Award
—
ADVANCED PRAISE
“This beautifully crafted collection walks us through the hallways of love, loss, wit, history, mythology, science, faith, and literature. Elegiac and disarmingly clever.”
—Sarah Bird, author of A Love Letter to Texas Women
—
“These poems take big leaps across history, the personal, literature, politics, geography, and form, to name a few. The poet has examined— from Haemon to Haber and beyond—and often found humanity wanting, hence the sad D Minor chord. But there is also a fine leavening humor and a compelling engagement with the mystery of being alive.”
—Rosemary Catacalos, Texas Poet Laureate 2013
—
“James Dennis writes with erudition, wit, and a breath of fresh West Texas air on a dazzling array of historical, biblical, and classical topics. Here are poems woven of personal experience and a genuine love for the world; poems of hard-won faith and unflinching empathy in a voice brave, wry and bracingly original. Correspondence in D Minor is a humdinger of a debut.”
—Noel Crook, author of Salt Moon
—