Fever of Unknown Origin: Poems

by Campbell McGrath

A collection of profound and piercing poems from a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize about navigating the modern world in search of beauty that will endure

Fever of Unknown Origin opens at a remote crossroads, where the speaker considers the intersection of history, beauty, and “the past / is paper / and the present, a match . . .” What follows is an urgent tour of landscapes—environmental, political, and personal—that reframes our perception of modern America and leads the reader into “An empire of rags and photons” where we must look to the past to clarify our futures.

With sublime wit and a Whitmanian eye, McGrath delivers a stunning collection of warnings, love letters, and praise songs for all that manages to weather the perennial pressures of frog ponds, stadium rubble, and the endless cycle of seasons, which usher us deeper into an era we cannot yet know.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Hardcover

Published May 9, 2023

About the author

Campbell McGrath (born 1962) is a modern American poet. He is the author of nine full-length collections of poetry, including his most recent, Seven Notebooks (Ecco Press, 2008), Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco Press, 2009), and In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, forthcoming, 2012).
Contents

1 Life
2 Music
3 Awards
4 Works
5 Bibliography
6 References
7 External links

Life

McGrath was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Washington, D.C., where he attended Sidwell Friends School; among his classmates was the poet Elizabeth Alexander. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1984 and his MFA from Columbia University's creative writing program in 1988, where he was classmates with Rick Moody. He currently lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and teaches creative writing at Florida International University, where his students have included Richard Blanco, Susan Briante, Jay Snodgrass and Emma Trelles. He is married to Elizabeth Lichtenstein, whom he met while he was an undergraduate; they have two sons.[1]
Music

In the early 1980s, while a student at the University of Chicago, he was a member of the punk band Men From The Manly Planet.[2]
Awards

McGrath has been recognized by some of the most prestigious American poetry awards, including the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (for "The Bob Hope Poem" in Spring Comes to Chicago, his third book of poems), a Pushcart Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, a Ploughshares Cohen Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award." In 2011 he was named a Fellow of United States Artists.[3]
Works

While primarily known as a poet, McGrath has also written a play, "The Autobiography of Edvard Munch" (produced by Concrete Gothic Theater, Chicago, 1983); a libretto for Orlando Garcia's experimental video opera "Transcending Time" (premiered at the New Music Biennalle, Zagreb, Croatia, 2009); collaborated with the video artist John Stuart on the video/poetry piece "14 Views of Miami" (premiered at The Wolfsonian, Miami, 2008); and translated the Aristophanes play The Wasps for the Penn Greek Drama Series.
Bibliography

Dust (chapbook, Ohio Review Press, 1988)
Capitalism (Wesleyan University Press, 1990)
American Noise (Ecco Press, 1993)
Spring Comes to Chicago (Ecco Press, 1996)
Road Atlas (Ecco Press, 1999)
Mangrovia (chapbook, Short Line Editions, 2001)
Florida Poems (Ecco Press, 2002)
Pax Atomica (Ecco Press, 2004)
Heart of Anthracite: New & Collected Prose Poems (Stride Press, UK)
Seven Notebooks (Ecco Press, 2008)
Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Ecco Press, 2009)
The Custodian & Other Poems (chapbook, Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2011)
In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco Press, 2012)

References

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many of these hit me good: they are plainspoken and humble and in awe. (I think that may be my sweet spot -- though I love more than that, for the record.)
They are of long-love and place (my favorites are of the wilder places -- you'd think I'd go for the Washington Park one, and it was lively, but didn't seem to have the roots, emotional and more, of the others).

I lingered through this book and felt lucky it was in the New Book section at my branch so I could find it.

Thank you for "Mercy Supermarket":

"Dearest god, I thank you
for this blessing,
though I cannot believe in it, or you. ...

If sorrow is the sentence
I will serve it.
If pain is your message I receive it.
Leaves are trembling
in an otherwise imperceptible breeze...

It is not a voice, it is not even a bird,
but I am listening.
I believe it may be the light
itself speaking to me, ..."

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this short collection of poems because it was on an anticipated new releases list and the title caught my attention. I enjoyed many of the turns of phrase and varied content alluding to some of my personal areas of interest medicine/health/anatomy and art history (Vermeer for example). I wish this had a more consistent thread that kept my interest, but instead it felt a bit fragmented or scattered. I enjoyed the author’s narration of the audiobook.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting poems.