Rodney Jones is the author of seven collections, including Transparent Gestures (Houghton Mifflin) and Elegy for the Southern Drawl (Houghton Mifflin). His new and selected Salvation Blues: One Hundred Poems, 1985-2005 will appear from Houghton Mifflin in the spring of 2006. Among his many honors, Jones was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Southeast Booksellers Association Award, and a Harper Lee Award. Jones is a professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Also In VQR

• Thoreau
• Courtship
• Vision of the End of the World in the Valdosta Holiday Inn