Jory Mickelson (Poetry) | Bellingham, WA
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Jory Mickelson is a queer, nonbinary writer who grew up in rural Montana. They graduated from Western Washington University in 2009 with a Bachelors in English. His poems have appeared in publications in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. They are the recipient of an Academy of American Poet’s Prize and a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho. He currently lives in Washington state with his husband and cat. Their first book Wilderness/Kingdom is forthcoming from Floating Bridge Press.
Books
Chapbooks
- Slow Depth (Argus House Press, 2012). Poetry.
Blurbs, Press, & Reviews
“Jory Mickelson’s Wilderness//Kingdom blew me away with its tender heart and flinty eyes. Like the man at the bar you know you’ll take home, these poems are irresistible and inevitable. Lovers—on country roads and inside the cars that drive them—are the men that populate each poem of longing, ‘the sound of pursuit still caught in its throat.’ Combining the discovery of desire with an exploration of the landscape of the Mountain West, Mickelson adds to the ever-more-robust American tradition of queering the wild and natural world. How dangerous love can be—’the mountain unable to catch / itself’—especially when embracing the freedom to love our own selves. Here is a book worthy of every stolen and cherished encounter.”
—Keetje Kuipers, author of All Its Charms
“‘Stillness pays the most to study,’ writes Jory Mickelson in Wilderness // Kingdom. Stillness has many facets in his hands. The hesitations that hinder queer youth from truly living: ‘leaning to carry / difference in the quiet of myself.’ The silences between father and son. The feverish hush after ecstasy or death. The enriching tranquility of marriage: ‘I taste each of your / doubts.’ Mickelson not only studies stillness, he spins it into gorgeous motion. His language resonates and is agile; the pauses and swerves of life are visible, startling. Wilderness //Kingdom is a remarkable and propulsive debut.”
—Eduardo Corral, author of Slow Lightning
