In The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, Mary Mackey writes of life, death, love, and passion with an intensity and grace that leave the reader breathless. Her poems are hugely imaginative and multi-layered. Part One contains forty-eight new poems including twenty-one set in Western Kentucky from 1742 to 1975; and twenty-six unified by an exploration of the tropical jungle outside and within us, plus a surreal and sometimes hallucinatory appreciation of the visionary power of fever. Part Two offers the reader seventy-eight poems drawn from Mackey’s seven previous collections including Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 Oakland PEN Award for Literary Excellence.

“It is difficult to resist the temptation to compare Mary Mackey to Elizabeth Bishop. Both poets are stunningly imagistic, musical, and awake to topography, sociology, and the world beyond.”—The Huffington Post 

“Mackey’s crisp-edged perceptions are set down with a sensuous, compassionate, and utterly unflinching eye.”—Jane Hirshfield