"It is a deep new pleasure to come on a poet with the imaginative boldness of Jim Barnes." -- James Dickey "Throughout his writing Barnes shows poise and a feeling for drama. His language is compelling and allusive, his tone often mysterious. But he never deals in obscurities. Instead, he has consciously developed a flexible, almost prosy style that is tightened into poetry by the sheer force of his syntax. Above all, Barnes is a capable explorer of self and society . . . a tough, discriminating voice." -- G. E. Murray, Chicago Sun-Times "Whatever the setting--a bus depot in Arizona, a lonely highway in Nevada or Wyoming, a tavern in Oregon or a small town in Missouri--Barnes's Midwestern and Western America is unique and authentic." -- Charles Guenther, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "[The American Book of the Dead is] a book of enduring poems, of vision and immeasurable risk that takes its place among our generation's lasting and responsible poetry." -- Martin D. Lammon, New Letters… (more)