Edge (Southern Tier Editions) [Hardcover]

Jeff Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003 | Series: Southern Tier Editions

Mann introduces you to people and places that inspire him. His physical journeys - to gay meccas like Key West and provincetown and overseas to Germany, Ireland and Scotland - lead to examination of gay history, family legacy, and the journey from youth's unrequited passions to mature adult relationships.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Harrington Park Pr; 1 edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560234296
• ISBN-13: 978-1560234296
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,157,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Mann grew up in Covington, Virginia, and Hinton, West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and forestry from West Virginia University. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Spoon River Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Laurel Review, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, Appalachian Heritage, Best Gay Poetry, Best Gay Erotica, and Best Gay Stories. He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex; three full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, and Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology; two collections of personal essays, Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear and Binding the God: Ursine Essays from the Mountain South; a novel, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal; two novellas, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire, and Camp Allegheny, included in History's Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and a volume of short fiction, A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Traversing the edge with a fascinating guide, November 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Edge (Southern Tier Editions) (Hardcover)

Jeff Mann makes his living as a teacher and has published as a poet but is revealed in this book as a prose artist. The second essay in the collection, "Watching dark Shadows," should be required reading for everyone, gay or straight. For this straight woman, it was a beautifully painful experience: so exquisitely written, but so terrible to know in such detail what I have the luxury of not experiencing at all in my life. To arrive at the last sentence of this essay is worth the cost of the book.

Another essay, entitled "Drambuie," deals with Mann's longing for and envy of youth/youthfulness. In the midst of the essay, as we are involved with Mann's pain (which is that of every one of us as we age), a poem wells up that is simply breathtaking. Anyone who has ever tried to write either prose or poetry must think here "it's not fair to be so good at both!" The poem encapsulates what Mann has been saying to this point, and yet does not say all that is needed - so the essay goes forward and we go with it, for there is much of the edge yet to traverse.

This book should be read by anyone who loves good writing, and by all straight women, who will really take heart from Mann's tales of survival from all the lousy relationships he had before he finally found a good man.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific!, February 7, 2006

By 

BB (Blacksburg, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edge (Southern Tier Editions) (Paperback)

This is the second book I've read by Jeff Mann, and he is quickly becoming an all-time favorite author. Exceedingly honest and intelligently written, Jeff Mann's journey though time is one that will relate to many, especially gay men. I found myself engaged and eager to read every word he had to say. His skills in eroticism had me leaving each read highly aroused. Personal favorites in this book include Teaching Gay & Lesbian Literature, Drambuie, Key West, and Providencetown.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boundaries, September 11, 2003

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edge (Southern Tier Editions) (Paperback)

Poet and teacher Jeff Mann shares his influences and memories in this collection of essays. Through travel to places such as Scotland and Key West, he connects the foreign to the personal and ruminates on family legacy, gay life and literature, and the trials of being a leather bear. Mann is an accomplished writer, and these essays are well written, but certain points are repeated over and over, creating tedium for the reader. And unfortunately, he doesn't elaborate much, so by the end of the book, the reader is not left with a clear picture of the whole man he has become, but rather is only briefly acquainted with the plethora of identity aspects Mann claims. Despite this, there is still much to enjoy here.