Publications
Driving through the Country before You Are Born
University of South Carolina Press, April 2007Winner of the 2006 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize
Dark poems struggling to reconcile a haunting loss and troubled present.
Selected by Kate Daniels as the winner of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize, Driving through the Country before You Are Born is the first collection of poetry from Ray McManus. The speaker in these poems searches for redemption and solace while navigating from a traumatic loss in the past to a present fraught with violence and self-destruction. The volume chronicles his attempt to glean some measure of forgiveness through acceptance of his own responsibly for his circumstances. The reader is called on to witness family stories without happy endings, landscapes on the verge of collapse, and prophetic visions of horrors yet to come. From these haunting visions, the only viable salvation is rooted in hope that, out of the ruins, there remains the possibility of a fresh beginning.
"Red Barn," "Toilet" and "Things to tell my son"
The Southern Poetry Anthology, Texas Review Press, forthcoming 2007.
"Negatives"
Jabberwock Review, Winter 2006
"Fist"
Los Angeles Review, Spring 2005
"Go," "Orientation," "Burning Caterpillars"
A Millennial Sampler of SC PoetsNinety-Six Press: Furman University, Spring 2005
"The long way home"
Natural Bridge, Spring 2005
"Black" and "White"
The Recorder, Summer 2004
"Main Street at Eighty," "Gridlock" and "Pavement"
Traffic Life, Winter 2003
"Red Barn"
Nimrod International Jornal, Volume 46, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2003
"Go"
Borderlands
"Trenches"
Ellipsis, Spring 2003
"Orientation"
Crazy Horse, Fall 2002
"A Short History of the Movies"
Interdisciplinary Humanities, Spring 2002
"Oceans" and "Settlement"
Illuminations, Spring 2002
"Stumps"
Cold Mountain Review, Spring 2002
