Dear Hero,

Poetry. African American Studies. DEAR HERO, is a crime scene investigation disguised as a love letter. The Hero's Journey is lined with caution tape. Our prayers have been subpoenaed. The bloodstained altars are being processed for DNA. Immortals lie on the autopsy table, and our narrator is checking the gods' entrails for clues, for any signs of hope.

Like Gary Jackson's Missing You, Metropolis, Jason McCall is a poet who walks around with a book full of lyrical needles, letting the air out of heroicballoons, not because he can, but to help us see the outlines of ourselves sharper, clearer. What the Gods calls flaws, this fast-talking yet tender poet calls living.--Cornelius Eady

McCall's DEAR HERO, follows the melancholy heartbeat behind our love of superheroes--the brokenness of humanity, our struggles with power and powerlessness, the fate of the outsider to long to be a savior. His forthright language is laced with both humor and longing, the desire to break boundaries and limitations almost palpable.--Jeannine Hall Gailey