Limits to the Salutary Effects of Upper-Midwestern Melancholy

Winner of the Split Rock Review 2016 poetry chapbook competition, Marc J. Sheehan's Limits to the Salutary Effects of Upper-Midwestern Melancholy often explores a sense of isolation; however, these poems abound with a wry sense of humor and word-play that keeps them from becoming predictable or maudlin. They attempt to find "the invisible grace raining down" upon bullet-riddled road signs, beach weddings, and a cereal maker's warehouse of decoder rings. Through such particular and carefully-drawn details, Sheehan makes that elusive, invisible grace visible.