Collections
Pietà (chapbook)
Pudding House Publications, 2001
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* Finalist, Maryland State Literary and Poetry Society Award, 2000 *
* Finalist, National Chapbook Competition, Pudding House Publications, 2000 *
The Golden Web (chapbook)
Wind River Press, 2003
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"The Golden Web opens onto a poetical world rife with diverse animal imagery, intellectual exploration and finely crafted storytelling. In this small, enchanting chapbook, Whitley examines big questions of the heart as well as of the mind. That is, the author delves into universal themes, such as fear, love, death, myth, and anger. Readers will be moved by the author's sensibility, clarity of voice and respect for his subject matter."
--Peggy Ann Tartt, Author, Among Bones
Lotus Press, 2002
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* Winner of the 2001 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award *
"Haunting, sharply observant and aesthetically brilliant, this collection chronicles the journey we all make: this journey of building a life of meaning in a world where the truth is often not as it should be, or what we want to believe, but nevertheless, in front of us. Full of pathos and beauty, Whitley's poems resonate."
--Amy Wilson, Editor, Salt Fork Review
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"Leading the reader in a matador's dance between victimizer and victim, artist and subject, heroism and betrayal, Whitley's imaginative personae and resolute energies help us locate the possible light despite the often dark 'chore of breathing.' These poems offer a welcome immersion in complexity, a highly original voice."
--Terry Blackhawk, Author, Body and Field
Ironweed Press, 2009
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* Winner of the 2010 Massachusetts Book Award *
* Winner of the Ironweed Press Poetry Prize *
"This Is the Red Door is an opening for the reader, a portal into a mind,
an entry (or perhaps a descent) into a fuller understanding of hunger."
--Shara McCallum, Author, Song of Thieves
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"This remarkable collection of lyrical poems about love, loss, and moving on, with sections aptly titled In, Under, Through, Over, and Out, brings the reader along the arc of a relationship, from breathless beginning to inevitable end. Whitley’s first lines draw one immediately into his experience, while the remainder of the poems invite further exploration. The poems, read aloud, roll off the tongue with an intelligence that avoids cleverness for its own sake. There is much to ponder and even more to discuss in this exceptional volume."
--The Judges, 2010 Massachusetts Book Awards
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Word Press, 2009
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"James R. Whitley, who tells in one poem of a fallen priest, writes as a kind of fallen priest himself, one who finds more eloquence in the mess of everyday experience than he ever would have in a lofty pulpit. Still a sanctity remains; everything he looks upon is blessed.
This is an accomplished, unsparing, and inspiring book of poems."
--Kate Bernadette Benedict, Editor, Umbrella
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"The Goddess of Goodbye is an extraordinary book for defying convention in every way. Like the stark, romantic streets of a Charles Burnett film retold through the wide-eye lens of Elizabeth Bishop, Whitley illustrates how the estrangement of death leads to a search for answers in the place of his youth. These poems always uncover the truth and, above all, instruct us on the value of human introspection—
at every moment in our lives."
--Michael W. Pollock, Editor, First City Review
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"These poems go beyond analysis and straight to the heart. Courage resonates on every page. This collection is one of healing and compassion, of respect and acceptance. Whitley has a gift for pulling us into the stories he tells within these poems. We are transported to the place and events of the scuff marks encoded on the floor, the sweet dark center of a rum-soaked raisin, the worm at the bottom of an empty tequila bottle.
The Goddess of Goodbye is powerful writing."
--Leilani Squire, Editor, Gentle Strength Review
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Red Mountain Press, 2021
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*Winner of the 2020 Red Mountain Poetry Prize*
*Winner of the 2022 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Award for Poetry (General) *
*Finalist, 2022 Connecticut Book Award *
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“Songs for Solo Voice reminds us, “when it comes to loss/none of us is immune.” Here the particular loss is
the end of an affair, a searing wound that takes a long time to heal, if ever, a theme almost as old
as lyric poetry itself which Whitley, like a modern-day Petrarch, revives in his own striking, sardonic, and
inimitable way. If “the music of never forgetting her” has become “the score of the rest of his life” so be it:
he may write about loss as much as he needs to, while I, liking his work enormously, somehow feel joy.”
--Alan Feldman, author of The Golden Coin
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“The poems in Songs for Solo Voice are full of beauty. And also allusion.
Phrases from the works of Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, William Butler Yeats, Buck Owens, and
even Mazzy Star show up in these poems. And yet, despite all these allusions, Whitley manages to hold onto
the personal expressions of desire, of loss, of love that define lyric poetry.
This book is a welcome reminder of poetry’s often overlooked power to show us
that even our most personal emotions have a collective vocabulary.”
--Juliana Spahr, author of That Winter the Wolf Came
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“What guides this collection is the primal need for the beloved whose presence once sustained, as now
the absence of whom devastates. What survives though, lucky for us as readers, are these poems.
Whitley's tightly wrought diction, lush images, and sharp turns-of-phrase are what restore us from loss.” --Shara McCallum, author of Madwoman
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