The Last Saturday in America: Book Launch with Ray McManus

Celebrate National Poetry Month and the release of Ray McManus’ newest work, The Last Saturday in America, with a lively reading and reception. McManus reads from his collection confronting the long shadow of Southern masculinity, then holds a conversation with USC professor and former Columbia poet laureate Ed Madden. Reception and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase courtesy of All Good Books. 

Free; gallery admission not included.

The Last Saturday in America is set in a nation on the precipice of great change. Through examinations of suburban neighbors, bullies, gun violence, and vasectomy appointments, McManus draws a portrait of American masculinity in the face of political division, pandemic, and cultural warfare. McManus’ speaker is caught between the way he was raised and the future he wants to see for who he is raising. He can no longer rely on what he thought he knew, nor does he know what to do about it. The man rendered in these pages is a father, a son, a Southerner. And he is willing to burn it all down and start something new, only to see that the new start he is looking for has been with him the whole time.

McManus is the author of four books of poetry: Punch., Red Dirt Jesus, and Driving through the country before you are born, and a chapbook called Left Behind. He is the co-editor for the anthology Found Anew with notable contributors with South Carolina ties. His poems have been published in numerous journals such as Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, and POETRY magazine. McManus teaches for USC Sumter and serves as Writer-in-Residence for the CMA.