The Words I Chose: A Memoir of Family and Poetry
"In The Words I Chose Wesley McNair has forged an engaging and memorable account of the role that poetry has played in his life as he describes three generations of his family. The story, in its bare outline of hardship and vicissitude, is preposterous but nonetheless true; and the reader is quickly and surely involved in this odd and taxing world of what begins as poverty of nearly every sort imaginable. McNair triumphs over adversity of many kinds, all along making and remaking himself as a poet—and as an essayist to boot. Few poets have ever worked so hard to perfect their craft. Anyone interested in contemporary poetry should relish this memoir, which includes snapshots of Robert Frost, John Nims, Donald Hall, and other accomplished poets, and memorable anecdotes about everything from farm work to the nuts and bolts of poetry." (George Core, editor of The Sewanee Review)