James Davis May is the author of two poetry collections, both published by Louisiana State University Press. Unquiet Things appeared in 2016, and Unusually Grand Ideas was released in 2023. His poems and essays have appeared in 32 Poems, The Georgia Review, Literary Hub, New England Review, The Southern Review, The Sun, and other journals. May has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Originally from Pittsburgh, he now lives in Macon, Georgia, where he directs the creative writing program at Mercer University.

Other poems by James Davis May in Verse Daily:
October 26, 2016:   "Portrait of the Self as Skunk Cabbage" "Maybe it's like those hard..."
August 25, 2016:   "'A Culture'" "That's what the voiceover calls the family of orcas..."

Books by James Davis May:

Other poems on the web by James Davis May:
"Like the Swift Flight"
Two poems
"Nostos"
"The Patron Saint Of Traffic Lights"
"My Plea"
"A Lasting Sickness"
"Moonflowers"
"Portuguese Man-of-War"
"Butterfly Soup"
"At Mercier Orchards"

James Davis May's Website.

James Davis May on Twitter.

About Unusually Grand Ideas:

"James Davis May's second book begins quietly, chronicling a series of losses, then escalates into a harrowingly exact, artfully rendered portrait of depression: 'I needed a darkness I'd probably survive / to escape the one I knew I wouldn't.' May nails the paralyzing character of his illness and somehow manages, through art and ardor, to negotiate with despair, climbing toward a position that acknowledges darkness but does not deny hope. 'Forgive me, Love, my difficulties with joy,' he writes to his young daughter, and to himself and his grateful readers, 'sometimes the world doesn't disappoint.' Unusually Grand Ideas is wrenching, genuine, and superb."
—Mark Doty