Sleep of Reason

2014 Pulitzer Finalist in Poetry

American poet Morri Creech won the very first Anthony Hecht Prize with Field Knowledge in 2006. His follow-up, The Sleep of Reason, is a lyrical examination of liminal states of consciousness and experience - the shadowy terrain between sleep and waking, dream and nightmare, life and death, history and the present moment.

The collection includes a surprising take on Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale', and a dark meditation on the perils of the sublime. The Sleep of Reason explores the anxieties, horrors and dreams that flash just beneath the surface of the waking mind, combining formal elegance and an acknowledgment of literary tradition with a fresh, contemporary voice.

"What's especially impressive is Creech's sense of pacing and musicality, lost in some contemporary poetry; lines like 'At daybreak light falls / through a thin gap in the curtains / like meaning drawn tight on a shivering thread' reveal a lovely mastery of craft.... A poet to watch and, for poetry devotees, certainly to read."
Library Journal (US)

"Morri Creech's [previous collection] Field Knowledge has given me more pleasure than any book I have read in years."
Frank Kermode

Morri Creech was born in Moncks Corner, South Carolina in 1970. He is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Paper Cathedrals (Kent State, 2001) and Field Knowledge (Waywiser, 2006), which received the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize and was nominated for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Poet's Prize. A recipient of NEA and Ruth Lilly Fellowships, he is the Writer in Residence at Queens University of Charlotte, where he teaches Creative Writing on the undergraduate and MFA programs. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.