Biloxi Back Bay

Hospitals, freeway underpasses, emergency rooms and public libraries provide the backdrop for these understated blues of memory and place. From the waterfronts of the deep South to the trainyards of the Northwest, they chart the ragged outskirts of contemporary America. Greene is the grandchild of Hugo and Ray Carver, of Thomas McGrath and Bukowski, finding salvation in the breath of a poem, naming his ghosts one by one.

—Joseph Millar, author of Shine

Biloxi Back Bay is a baptism in saltwater and survival—a fierce, unflinching hymn to the Gulf Coast and the hard lessons it breeds. Rob Greene writes with the precision of someone who’s lived every line, turning poverty, addiction, and boyhood endurance into poetry that feels both bruised and holy. In “Biloxi Back Bay,” the title poem and heart of the collection, Greene transforms memory into testament: a son’s witness to chaos, a craftsman’s gratitude for endurance, and a poet’s faith that language can redeem even the roughest inheritance. These poems don’t flinch. They listen. They remember. They rise from the water shining.

—Eric Muhr, publisher at Fernwood Press

Rob Greene is the founder and publisher of Raleigh Review, where the overall mission states a belief that “empathy allows us to see through the eyes of our neighbors, whether across the street or across the globe.” He also mentors the editorial team at The Fool’s World, a new travel magazine.