Chris McClelland, multiple award-winning short story writer and novelist

When the author of this new chapbook of poetry moved from Florida to central Utah in 2011, he had no idea how deeply he would be changed by the culture and the religion of the Latter Day Saints, a culture and faith that continues to move him strongly today. This experience led to a lot of measured prayer and pondering, and the result was, among other things, establishing his family in Utah, his new-found relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus, and this small book of poems addressed to friends and family left behind in Florida, as well as everyone else, particularly lovers of the Western United States and landscape poetry. A long-time award winning writer of short fiction, Chris McClelland has more recently garnered notice for his poetry, including awards and praise from the Veteran’s Administration and appearances in many respected publications, such as Irreantum (a Mormon literary magazine), Adelaide Literary Magazine, Veteran Voices, and The Beatnik Cowboy.  His most recent ...

This summer I have been working on two book projects concurrently.  One is the upcoming novel you all are already getting familiar with through my earlier posts on this blog.  The other I have not spoken publically of before now.  That second project is a small book of poetry, a chapbook if you will, of poems mostly on the theme of my moving out West from the East coast and all the changes those things have worked deeply inside me.  The title of the poetry book is Come West: Secular and Sacred Poems, and it has a kind of "Cowboy Poet" flavor to it in many places. One published work that has already been on the internet is a poem that first appeared in The Beatnik Cowboy last year.  It is called "Hot Sand" and the poem below is just as it first appeared in Beatnik Cowboy last August. Hot Sand   The gusts blast like furnace-fire In this desert land, And never does the heat seem more oppressive Than now, An oven-blast and a scorched-earth policy. Such an arid ...