I'm wondering if you have read Brian Barker's _The Animal Gospels_, and if so, what did you think of it? It reminds me of your work in that it's very southern, very lyrical, and concerned with preserving and injustice. It won the big Tupelo Press Prize a few years back. Any comments?

I haven't read that one, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll get hold of it and post to you in a few weeks.

CB,

I realized, as I was ordering the book this morning, that I've read a number of Brian Barker's poems. He and I were in an issue of Blackbird together, and I'd read his Campbell Corner poems. I'm looking forward to the book—for various reasons I've had trouble getting Tupelo books at our local bookstores—in part because Barker, like other poets from Virginia and North Carolina, Joshua Poteat foremost in my mind, has a fluency I don't think my work has. Maybe I'll be able to say that more clearly later on. Thank you, again, for sending me to The Animal Gospels.