{"product_id":"the-committee-of-men","title":"The Committee of Men","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames Ciano’s debut collection, \u003cem\u003eThe Committee of Men\u003c\/em\u003e, explores the cycles of violence men inflict on one another and themselves, examining how silence, shame, and inherited expectations shape masculine identity.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003eRooted in the speaker’s experience as a college athlete from a family of athletes—including a father who is a high school football coach—these poems confront the emotional weight of tradition and the often-unspoken struggles of male intimacy, mental illness, and familial pressure.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThrough sharp lyricism and emotional honesty, Ciano delves into themes of belonging and exile, accountability and forgiveness, and the quiet damage done by historically unexamined masculinity, asking what it means to break these generational cycles without severing connection, and how healing might emerge in places where vulnerability is discouraged or denied. The result is a collection that is both unflinching and deeply humane—an urgent, resonant debut that refuses to look away.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 dir=\"ltr\"\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eThe Committee of Men\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In this haunted and haunting book of initiations, James Ciano takes on a past and a subject matter seldom encountered in poetry—the harsh, glaring, unpoetical world of grueling masculinity. With John Keats and James Wright as two of his guides, he uses the transformative power of poetry to confront and transfigure his longstanding demons. This deeply humane collection left me shaking, shocked, and enthralled.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Edward Hirsch, author of \u003cem\u003eStranger by Night \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“James Ciano’s exquisite debut, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Committee of Men\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003e,\u003c\/em\u003e offers striking meditations on masculinity reminiscent of B.H. Fairchild and Philip Levine. Brilliantly tender, after reading it, this collection will compel you to do as the speaker’s beloved asks: ‘Start again, from the beginning.’” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Nicole Sealey, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Ferguson Report: An Erasure\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In poems that slalom vertiginously between tenderness, self-reproach, an insider’s vexed relationship to toxic masculinity, and love, James Ciano portrays with great deftness a young man’s coming-of-age. ‘I never said yes, but I never said no,’ admits the speaker as he tries to understand, without making excuses for himself, a past that troubles him. Reading these wide-ranging, unpredictable poems, I find myself swept into a world of boys and men pressured to perform a certain kind of masculinity; I also find myself terribly moved by the speaker’s vivid, unsparing, and ultimately loving portraits of his family, with whom he seems both insider and outsider. The emotional depth and maturity of these poems is a remarkable achievement, one that speaks from a pact of silence rarely broken. Perhaps what I most admire is Ciano’s unwillingness to point fingers, holding himself accountable as he carries his readers into a mind aswirl with grief, longing, disbelief, and empathy.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Catherine Barnett, author of \u003cem\u003eSolutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“The poems in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Committee of Men\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e reflect the raw psyche and palpable pain we find in Robert Lowell’s poetry or, more recently, in the late poems of Larry Levis; but Ciano is also echoing the kind of grace and persistence we see in Philip Levine’s poem of illness and masculinity, ‘Having Been Asked ‘What Is a Man?’ I Answer.’ I always turn to James Ciano’s work for its compassion and its intimacy.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—David St. John, from the \u003cem\u003eForeword\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eThe Committee of Men (Autumn)\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeason of mists and major episodes,\u003cbr\u003edewed grass, mammoth white lights\u003cbr\u003elike boiled eggs above the bleachers.\u003cbr\u003eWas it aberrant, the sky, against\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ethe empty fields? I pushed my body\u003cbr\u003eto the point I stopped feeling it. No,\u003cbr\u003estopped feeding it. A mania of mists.\u003cbr\u003eAberrant mind like a mammoth white\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003emirror. The beginning of October,\u003cbr\u003edewed grass, last gallops of light out\u003cbr\u003eof the sky. If the body is not a body\u003cbr\u003eis a door is a frame. Watercolored\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003efaces over the fence. Suicide\u003cbr\u003ewas later, but failure thatched itself\u003cbr\u003ebehind my eyes. Alone inside\u003cbr\u003ethe empty fields October lives or dies.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47926094102757,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47926094135525,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":49920395247845,"sku":null,"price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/TheCommitteeOfMen_CVR_1600px_RGB_LG.jpg?v=1760729875","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/the-committee-of-men","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}