David Ray
 Publications New Work Honors & Awards In Performance Orders & Feedback



Contact David Ray at:
djray@gainbroadband.com

[New!]
 After Tagore:
   Poems Inspired by
   Rabindranath Tagore
 (Nirala Publications, New Delhi, India)
Hardcover edition, 110 pages plus Preface by the author.
 "This book is for readers who may find images and ideas that provoke them to meditation, homage to nature, or even to right conduct..."

Studs Terkel has written: "David Ray's poetry has always been radiant even though personal tragedy has suffused it."

~When is David Ray’s twenty-first book. Gathered here are poems that express concern for the earth and humanity; poems that explore connections through biography; and poems that haunt with grief and love.
~When (Howling Dog Press/Omega Editions 2007)
See When page for review
February, 2008
 ________________________________
 Music of Time:
       Selected and New Poems
       (The Backwaters Press, 2006)

"If David Ray's most recent book, Music of Time, were a piece of music, it might be Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings -- an exceedingly lovely, undeniably sad work."
           From The Kansas City Star, 3/4/2007. 
 See Music of Time page for more of the review.

"Ray's 'best' poems are now gathered in Music of Time, and they stand as an example of the kind of verse that speaks directly to the human heart. I searched through this collection for a weak or artificial sentiment and failed to find one. Music of Time is bulletproof and deserves a place on every poetry lover's bookshelf." 
        From Tucson Weekly, March, 2007
________________________________

 The Death of Sardanapalus 
and Other Poems of the Iraq Wars     
           (Howling Dog Press, 2004)      

One Thousand Years:
   Poems about the Holocaust        
          (Timberline Press, 2004)
         See Review from The Kansas City Star

 To order books:   contact     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Publications
New Work
Honors & Awards
In Performance
Orders & Feedback


The Endless Search : A Memoir
published in 2003 by Soft Skull Press.
    "The author's frank account, unlike many in the current canon of victimology, is almost lyrical, while remaining unglamorized and unsentimental throughout. Ray's quest is alternately heartbreaking and chilling..."

  
   

David Ray's writings focus on a number of leadings, ranging from lyric poems of love and grief to passionate protest and memoir. His memoir, The Endless Search, is a probing search of his early years, which have been described as "Dickensian, full of abuse and tragedy."  To this work he brings the insights of a man who has studied his own history as both clinical and mystical reality, a celebration of survival. 

David has won many awards for fiction, poetry, and essays. He is available for readings and workshops, serves as manuscript reader for publishers and as judge of literary contests.  His writing has been widely published in anthologies and magazines in addition to his books.

He has been a visiting professor in India, New Zealand and Australia, as well as a teacher of literature and creative writing at American universities and colleges.  He now lives in Tucson with his wife, Judy Ray.

 
 

Concerns: 
David Ray was one of the founders of American Writers Against the Vietnam War in 1966 and co-edited, with Robert Bly, A Poetry Reading Against the Vietnam War, a collection of relevant readings from the classics as well as contemporary sources. Many of these materials have been widely quoted in recent anti-war activities.  David writes many new poems and essays on current events, some of which can be read in the on-line publication of Howling Dog Press at www.howlingdogpress.com/XRAYS  

Special concerns for workshops, lectures, and thematic readings include Grief, and Writing as Therapy.
 

Contact David Ray:  djray@gainbroadband.com

And visit Judy Ray's website

Copyright © 2008 by David Ray