UCF Creative Writing professor Ephraim Scott Sommers has released his first book, a collection of poetry entitled The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire, this month through Tebot Bach Press.
The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire focuses on the underrepresented—the convicts, the grave-diggers, the addicts—the “others,” and brings to life the terrible beauty of the gritty spaces in the world. Lying, cheating, tattoos, and overdose are explored in the work, and Sommers’ debut asks readers to examine those spectacularly “ordinary” parts of their lives.
“Although Ephraim Scott Sommers’ smart, terrifying poems deny the safety of arrival, they remain in their rejection of closure stubbornly, improbably hopeful. Not for redemption or peace of mind—these anxious poems know better than to hope for the impossible—but for purposeful action after so much shame and wild mischance. The work of a lifetime, converting sorrow into something of use, a song for the hard journey ahead,” says poet Dorothy Barresi.
Dr. Ephraim Scott Sommers began teaching Creative Writing at UCF in Fall 2016. The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire is his debut collection of poetry and winner of the 2016 Patricia Bibby First Book Award.
To learn more about The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire, visit Tebot Bach Press here, and to learn more about Dr. Sommers’ work visit his website here.