Poet and Journalist Grabell ’03 to Read from Macho Man

The Poet: Michael Grabell ’03 is an investigative reporter with ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to in-depth stories in the public interest, for which he writes about air safety and the economy, among other topics. But outside of his professional life, Grabell enjoys a different kind of writing: poetry. His first collection of poems, Macho Man, won the Finishing Line Press chapbook competition and was a finalist for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has appeared in the Best American Poetry anthology.

The Poetry: The title Macho Man might mislead the reader into thinking about a Hemingway-like machismo. But the title is ironic, says Pushcart Prize winner Bruce Bennett, who wrote that the poems are “effortlessly fluent” with a consciousness that “is exquisitely sensitive and attuned to the slightest nuance.” The poems cover a range of subjects, from musings on childhood to sexual longing. National Book Award finalist and Princeton professor James Richardson ’71 wrote, “Grabell arranges the head-on collision of his restless desire with its immovable objects, and somehow walks away from the wreck with poems of utter lucidity, sharp insight, and perfect pace.”

The Readings: Sept. 6th at 1pm, Poets House, 10 River Terrace, NYC; Sept. 10th at 6:30pm, Caffe Reggio, 119 MacDougal Street, NYC; Sept. 12th at 6pm, Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC.

A Selection from Nike Missile Base: From Riker Hill, they could see the distant flecks of energy, New York a corona, always rising with the uneasiness of a new day. This is where we came years later to feel invincible and irradiate our frailties with Everclear.