Snow Day by Evan Vandermeer

Snow Day is a lyrical account of Evan Vandermeer’s reckoning with his lost father’s legacy. Although the subject matter of these poems is wide-ranging, from a vivid description of his wife’s ultrasound to a wonderfully funny account of sitting at a bar in India with Miss Universe, the book is haunted by his father’s ghost. Snow Day is for all of us who lost a parent when we were young, and were therefore doomed to spend a lifetime wondering who that mysterious figure in the past actually was. I’ve been on that journey myself, and these poems speak to me with power and grace. This is a lovely and compelling debut by a writer of great promise.
–George Bilgere, host of the online newsletter, Poetry Town

Vandermeer’s conversational tone belies the range and depth of emotions coursing through these wonderful poems. Evocations of joy (as found in the title poem) exist in the context of memories that may stir up mud, and cloud the heart, but––in their telling, their truth-telling––run clear again.
–Chuck Brickley, author of downhill home and multi-award winning earthshine

The title of Evan Vandermeer‘s volume, Snow Day, seems to suggest we’re in for a relatively trouble-free accounting of family, and yet the poems reveal the world is often not what it seems. The veneer of American experience is often peeled away, as the poet confesses his own fears and frailties or reckons with revelations that mar our collective innocence. Careful and precise, Vandermeer is that rare master of––what I’ll call here––the sentence that flows through lines… Just sit down and start reading. Vandermeer’s flawless verse about fathers and sons, childhood and adulthood, travel and art, will make you forget everything outside of what’s happening on the page. And then your breath catches in shock. Or you find yourself laughing out loud. (These poems are often very funny.) Snow Day is a startling debut effort.
–David Dodd Lee, author of Downsides of Fish Culture and The Bay