Scattered Clouds Featured on The Poetry Foundation's December Reading List
Reuben Jackson's second collection of poetry is named by editor Naomi Ayala to the December reading list.
If you're a frequent reader of The Poetry Foundation's Editor's Blog, you might have seen the title Scattered Clouds appear somewhere between Samuel Miranda and The Dalai Lama on editor Naomi Ayala's December reading list. The PF reading list, simply put, is a short list of recommended reading from the editor's of Poetry. December's was an eclectic list and the tastes (and voracity) of the editors varies wildly from month to month. We are delighted to see this incredible collection enjoyed by so so many people of different walks and stripes.
A few weeks ago Reuben forwarded us an email he had received from a college professor teaching Scattered Clouds. It said:
My students absolutely adored your book. They read it so intensely and were as engaged as I’d ever seen them. I reread the book for a third time (I’ve read fingering the keys—what, a thousand times?) and it just gets better. There’s a progression toward melancholy, toward grief, but not without exuberance and quite a bit of comedy. It touches me every time.
I’m teaching it again next semester when you will come (I hope) to —.
Next month Reuben will be hosting a poetry slam competition at a different college. And in March he will read at the Enoch Pratt in Baltimore.