Part reckoning with a father’s chronic illness, part coming of age in the Upper South, part meditation on the slow, painful accumulation of adulthood, Another Man considers issues of family, care, and inheritance. These powerful poems capture unexpected moments of lucidity among the desire and heartbreak of becoming oneself.
In his debut collection, Jim Whiteside astonishes with turns of phrases that pinpoint the beauty in the mundane—the “waterfalling bodies” of fish while stocking a pond—and the mundane in the tragic, as in the realization after his father’s death that “in the end so much is paperwork.”
In revealing his origin story, the poet redefines the queer poem in a more nuanced and contemporary way, acknowledging queer life beyond conventional narratives. Filled with a zeal for life, a yearning for joy, and moments of sublime satisfaction, this collection shimmers with longing and freedom: “So many things our parents never mentioned, / so we gave ourselves permission.”