Part elegy, part memoir, part early-stage movie script, Naked takes the reader into a specific time and place from Donnelle McGee’s life and connects us to his origins. McGee is a confessional poet for today, unflinching but not distant, self-aware but not self-absorbed. He doesn’t shy away from hard terrain; instead, he forces the reader to see what he’s seen, feel what he’s felt, and mourn what he’s lost. Along the way, we all experience the singular exhilaration that stems from beating the odds. McGee’s voice is distinctive, his poems are engaging, his story is riveting.

Donnelle McGee’s previous work includes the novel, Shine.  He earned his MFA at Goddard College and is now on faculty at Mission College in Santa Clara.  This is his second Bird & Beckett reading.