Towns Facing Railroads

About

In her second book of poetry, Jo McDougall takes her readers to the dusty prairie towns of the central states, places where the flat terrain belies a complex human landscape. In short, dceptively simple lines, McDougall can so keenly trace the lineaments of place and era that her subject stands before us, its essence displayed and made timeless.

Quietly, with an almost aphoristic bit, McDougall writes about ordinary lives and small towns in a way that her readers may never forget.

Author

“Jo McDougall has a fine ear tuned to the idiom and the subtle rhythms of american speech. She talks with us, not at us, and the result is a shared sense of truth-telling about the people, places, and the things which characterize these late 20th century times. Towns Facing Railroads is a first rate book of poems, full of sad knowledge, but richer with wisdom and the earned refinement of art.”
—George Garrett

“Jo McDougall’s poems are finely observed, precisely felt, often mordant insights into the finality of ordinary life. She has a gift for striking images and metaphors that seem almost casual and yet sum up long perods of time and tangled complexes of emotion.”
—Fred Chappell

Praise

Jo McDougall is an Arkansas Delta poet who has authored seven books of poetry, including In the Home of the Famous Dead, Towns Facing Railroads, and From Darkening Porches, and a memoir, Daddy’s Money. In 2018, McDougall was awarded the Porter Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award, given every five years to an established Arkansas writer. She also served as the Poet Laureate of Arkansas from 2018 to 2022. She lives in Little Rock with her husband.

Author website.