Faculty, alumni, and friends of the Missouri State University English Department remember their long-time teacher and colleague, Michael Burns (1953-2011), who helped found the department’s creative writing program. Though his living voice has passed, his poetry remains. Forthcoming from Moon City Press, Night of the Grizzly is Burns’s seventh, his last, and arguably his best book.

Night of the Grizzly will make its official debut on Friday evening, April 20, at 7:00 p.m. in the Plaster Student Union Theatre on the Missouri State campus. Following performances by Theatre and Dance students, Burns’s colleagues and former students will present the book’s first public reading. Free and open to the public, the April 20 event is sponsored by PawPrints, Your Union Bookstore, which will be selling copies of Burns’s poems.

The April 20 event is titled “Poetry and Motion: Performances by Inertia Dance Company, Poetry by Michael Burns.” Celebrating April as both National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month, the evening will begin with choreography by members of  Inertia Dance Company (dir. Darryl Clark), including “Rhythm,” an a capella tap number by dance major Madalyn Foley, and “Otis,” by dance major Spencer T. Ernst. The evening will then feature a brief remembrance of Michael Burns by Dr. Clark Closser, emeritus professor of English. Burns’s former students, Lee Busby and Chaz Miller, will read from Night of the Grizzly, as will the book’s editor, Marcus Cafagña.

As fellow poet, Mark Jarman, writes, “Night of the Grizzly is that saddest of literary genres, a posthumous collection of verse. It is heartbreaking to realize that we will have no more poetry from Michael Burns.  Fortunately for those of us who admire his work, he has left us a clear-eyed and truthful record of his final years.” Jarman joins the growing chorus of praise for Burns’s book.

“These poems,” writes William Trowbridge, “come from an intense life lived on the edge, one redeemed by a loving nature, a sharp eye, and a rich poetic gift.” Jo McDugall stresses Burns’s honesty: “by turns tormented, earthy, humorous, celebratory, his poems pin us with uncanny accuracy to the truth of our flawed selves.” Dave Smith provided the book’s Introduction, in which he writes, “Dickinson would have liked his severity, Ransom his delight in paradoxes, and me, well I like his hand with words that keep surprising me.”

Night of the Grizzly has been edited by Burns’s Missouri State colleague and fellow poet, Marcus Cafagña, who provided the book’s Afterword. “It was an easy edit, since the manuscript was clean and complete,” says Cafagña, who adds that “it was also a labor of love. The 36 poems gathered here show Michael at the height of his powers.”

“For 25 years, Michael Burns was the face of the Missouri State creative writing program,” says W. D. Blackmon, head of the English Department and director of Moon City Press. “In publishing Burns’s last book, we can show our gratitude to the man, his art, and his contributions to teaching,” Blackmon adds. Moon City is a nationally-distributed press imprint of the Missouri State Department of English.

Book and event information follows.

Night of the Grizzly

Poems by Michael Burns

Edited with an Afterword by Marcus Cafagña

Introduction by Dave Smith

Available April 15

ISBN 978-0-913785-38-6

6 x 9, 84 pages

$10.95 paper

“Poetry and Motion: Performances by Inertia Dance Company, Poetry by Michael Burns”

When and Where: 7:00-8:3 p.m. Friday, April 20, in the Plaster Student Union Theatre on the Missouri State University campus

What: Choreography by members of Inertia Dance Company (dir. Darryl Clark), including Madalyn Foley and Spencer T. Ernst; poetry readings by Clark Closser, Marcus Cafagña, Lee Busby, and Chaz Miller

Why: Celebrating April as National Poetry Month and Jazz Appreciation Month; remembering Michael Burns’s life and art

Who May Come: “Poetry and Motion” is free and open to the public; friends and former students of Michael Burns are warmly invited (for further information, email JBaumlin@MissouriState.edu)

FOR DOWNLOADABLE/PRINTABLE B&N BOOK VOUCHERS (needed to benefit the Library), visit the Moon City Press website.

Courtesy of  Dr. James Baumlin