Human, hunger, happiness, hope, heart and Halliday all start with "h", as does ham. Accident? Maybe! But seldom have the flour of the humanistic and the egg yolk of honesty mixed more swellingly with the yeast of desire and the salt of self-doubt -not to mention the olive paste of ambition. Halliday has whacked Death and Mustabilite before, but this time ...this time he whacks them again. After this "Jab", the world will never be the same. Or at least, a few hundred conversations, here and there, will be somewhat affected. Roll over Death, and tell Mutabilitie the news.

"Halliday's Jab is not a jab but a roundhouse haymaker that'll K.O. you, dear reader, the referee, and all three corrupt judges, leaving no one to count to ten, no one to ring the bell, and no one to ask who in the hell the president is." - Jerry Williams "What is this man doing? What is the black trash bag he is carrying? What's he doing now? Is there meaning to this? Should he be arrested? This book's a big deal. If it wasn't, you think I'd be here with you?" - Martha Rhodes "The Phoenix Poets list contains a number of poets currently on my list of favorites. This is a strong, vital series which has given voice to some of the best voices in American poetry today." - Billy Collins

Mark Halliday teaches in the creative writing program at Ohio University. He is the author of three books of poems, Little Star, Tasker Street, and Selfwolf, the last published by the University of Chicago Press. He received the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001.