The Kingdom Where No One Dies
by Jeff McRae
“These poems argue, with inspired lyric clarity, that consolation resides not in our fractured childhoods but in the wholeness of adulthood and in the knowledge we gained by watching our innocence dissolve into thin air.” —Mary Jo Bang
Jeff McRae’s debut collection, The Kingdom Where No One Dies, honors the ache and beauty of ordinary life. The poems inhabit transitional moments—leaving for college, moving houses, watching children grow, bearing witness to the slow dissolution of elders and traditions. While the collection evokes a strong sense of place—Vermont’s fields and back roads, barns and schoolrooms—it also conjures the psychic terrain of those navigating the passing of time and the breaking of long-held familial structures. Voices from past and present—sons, fathers, teachers, musicians, old lovers, and lost friends—interweave to form a choral meditation on intimacy, failure, and persistence.
Jeff McRae lives in Vermont with his wife and three children. He earned a Masters in Writing from the University of New Hampshire and a Masters in Fine Arts in poetry from Washington University, St. Louis where he was the recipient of the Academy of American Poets prize. Since returning to Vermont, he’s worked as a fly rod builder, a digital marketing copywriter, a youth employment specialist, and for fifteen years as a creative writing and literature instructor. Along the way he’s served as poetry reader for Boulevard Magazine and The Adroit Journal. His poetry has appeared in Massachusetts Review, Antioch Review, Rattle, Salamander, and many other publications. He has been a finalist for several first book awards including the New Issues Poetry Prize, the Gerald Cable Book Award, and the Cider Press Review Book Award. An active musician, he also performs in theaters, clubs, and concert halls throughout New England.