Carnegie Mellon University
February 02, 2017

Jim Daniels' "Rowing Inland" Takes Readers Back to Metro Detroit

Daniels Once Again Focuses on Working-Class Life in His 15th Book of Poetry

Jim Daniels' 15th book of poetry, Rowing Inland.

From the last meals his mother is able to cook and joy rides to Canada to childhood and the end of it, Carnegie Mellon University’s Jim Daniels circles back to his life in Detroit in his 15th book of poetry, “Rowing Inland.”

Similar to many of Daniels’ works, working-class life appears throughout the four stages of the collection. While Detroit shows up in many of Daniels’ pieces, what’s different this time is the amount of distance he’s given himself to write.
 
“I’m looking at it from a different perspective, I think, of someone who has been away for a while and may be seeing things with a little more distance,” said Daniels, the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor of English. “‘Rowing Inland’ is kind of acknowledging this is where I’m from, it’s the people I’m from, and that’s always going to be a part of me and my work.”
 
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