“McGrath [is] a writer who could help save poetry from academia and get the rest of us reading it again.”
—Outside Magazine

From the MacArthur “Genius Grant” and Kingsley Tufts Award winner Campbell McGrath, acclaimed author of Shannon, comes In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys, an electric new collection of poetry. Writing in the poetic tradition of Walt Whitman, McGrath captivates with ironic romanticism as he lyrically explores the banality of the everyday—from the decay and transformation of the nation’s cities to “Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year’s Day”—in poems that entreat us to love what endures amid the detritus of American pop culture.

From the MacArthur genius grant and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner Campbell McGrath, an electric new collection of poetry that asks us to love what lasts amid the detritus of American culture

After nearly a decade, In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys marks a return for Campbell McGrath to the poetic forms that brought him national acclaim—lyrical meditations on American art and society by turns satirical, tender, and haunted by the merciless work of time. In poems such as "Dick Cheney Speaks to Me in a Dream" and "Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year's Day," McGrath explores the intersection of the personal and the public realms of American culture like no other poet at work today. Whether he's documenting the decay and transformation of American cities, eulogizing Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, or rhapsodizing on the extramortal lifespan of books, McGrath writes poems of dazzling energy, intelligence, humor, and engagement. In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys is a collection of dreams, visions, jibes, essays, arguments, and love songs, each of them transformed into poetry by one of our most honored and entertaining poets.