Spring Water

by John Fitzgerald

Spring Water by John M. FitzGerald is a book unlike any other in contemporary poetry: a novel-in-verse about an ordinary man who, quietly and without notice, lives the life of a serial killer. This haunting, and disturbingly plausible, collection establishes FitzGerald as an important new voice in narrative poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

88 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2005

About the author

John FitzGerald is a poet, writer, editor, and lawyer in Los Angeles. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, he graduated from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, where he was editor of the Law Review.
His first book, the novel in verse, Spring Water, was a Turning Point Books prize selection in 2005. Telling Time by the Shadows (Turning Point Books) was released in 2008. His most recent work, The Mind, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2011. His fourth collection, Favorite Bedtime Stories, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2014.
He has contributed to the anthologies Poetry: Reading it, Writing it, Publishing it (Salmon Poetry 2009) and Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (Salmon Poetry 2011) as well as to many literary magazines.
John has worked as the Associate Book Editor for Cider Press Review. He has been featured poetry reader at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the West Hollywood Book Fair, on national radio, and at many literary venues throughout the country.

Reviews

[Helene Cardona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spring Water is a masterfully crafted novel in verse by poet and attorney John M. FitzGerald.
It is suspenseful, scary, funny, thoughtful, poetic, visually haunting and moving at the same time.
The pages that belong to the diary of the protagonist Joe Smith have a dreamlike quality that stays with you long after you've finished reading the book. On the back cover Robert Nazarene compares it to "The Silence of the Lambs", and I agree. I highly recommend it. I couldn't put it down.

[John Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

EDITORIAL REVIEW

"John FitzGerald's debut volume, Spring Water, is to poetry what The Silence of the Lambs is to filmdom: a harrowing, narrative trip that makes for an absolutely compelling read...brilliantly delivered by one of America's most promising new poets. We were delighted to introduce this author to the reading public."

-- Robert Nazarene, Founding Editor, Margie/The American Journal of Poetry

[Stephen Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spring Water is a hard-boiled crime story told in a series of narrative poems. The main character, Joe Smith, is J. Alfred Prufrock if J. Alfred Prufrock was driven to killing. Hints of Dexter Morgan float from between the lines too, but Joe Smith is not a killer who uses syringes and keeps freshly sharpened knives in a fashionable, snappy roll. The poems are all accessible, but each provides a piece of the crucial puzzle of understanding and, yes, empathizing with Joe Smith. This is a powerful, fun, yet disturbing collection of poetry, unusual in its unconventionality as a collection, but genius too in the way it holds a mirror up to the civilization in which Joe Smith lives and works. Each of us can be a Joe Smith; that's what's so brilliantly scary about this book. I've come to call it one of my favorite books of poetry.