The Light in Our Houses, by Al Maginnes

Selected by Betty Adcock as Winner of the 2000 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize "This book dares to forego the heavy-handed irony and satiric wink that are so often the chief characteristics of newer poetry . . . Al Maginnes can be dark indeed, but his gaze is finally steady and straight ahead. He is aware, awake, amazed, and alive—all the things we want from a poet—and in language that ultimately blesses with the old lyric joy." —Betty Adcock