Devils & Islands

Turner Cassity was born in 1929 in Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of seven collections of poetry and the recipient of numerous prizes and awards. He retired in 1991 as a catalog librarian at the R. W. Woodruff Library, Emory University.

"He is a guerrilla tactician of piquant humor, waiting patiently in the bushes then pouncing at just the right moment.... His inimitable takes on contemporary life and thought delight even as they deliver their well-aimed stings." "He could be a reincarnation of the spirit of Alexander Pope in the contemporary world. How would such a spirit of the Enlightenment adapt to the media-dominated postmodern world? The answer is 'easily,' like an antediluvian alligator to the swimming pool—and with an entertainment value of four stars." (Magill's Literary Annual 2008) "The world he so minutely examines may be decadent, but the work it provokes is an intellectual delight." "He is surely one of the most jaundiced satirists around, but there is in his poems often something-some hint of human sympathy perhaps-that leaves the reader some hope of being forgiven or at least overlooked."