Hunger Wide as Heaven

Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2006

Hunger Wide as Heaven is a collection of poems by Max Garland, and is the winner of the 2005 Cleveland State University Poetry Center Open Competition. Garland’s second book, Hunger Wide as Heaven, earned another national prize, this time from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, a leading force in the publishing and promotion of new American poetry. The book explores themes of faith, mortality, memory, and resilience through accessible, often nostalgic poems that find grace in the everyday world, drawing from Garland's experiences as a former rural letter carrier in Kentucky. 

“There’s a welcoming world here you’ll recognize, as well as a wistfulness that feels perfectly pitched, leaning out to mystery…I’m a mad fan of the delicious, radiant poems of Max Garland.” —Naomi Shihab Nye