Author Event: Richard Newman

Richard Newman is the author of four books of poetry and the novel Graveyard of the Gods. His work has appeared in American Journal of Poetry, Best American Poetry, Boulevard, I-70 Review (featured poet), Innisfree Poetry Journal, Literary Matters, Poetry East, Tar River Poetry, and many other magazines and anthologies. He currently teaches Creative Writing and World Literature at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco. Before moving to the Maghreb, he and his family lived in Vietnam, Japan, and the Marshall Islands. Before leaving the US in 2016, he lived in St. Louis and served as Editor and Executive Director of River Styx for 22 years.

Blues at the End of the World traces the narrative arc of Richard Newman’s leaving the US for good, looking for something else, and finding unexpected wonders, redemption, love and family in the Marshall Islands, Japan, and Vietnam. Written in a variety of forms and song-forms, the book is studded with tanka, haiku, haibun, sonnets, and triolets, and even the free verse poems are influenced by Pacific Island chants.