“In the early 1990s, in his volume The Bears And Other Poems, Knute Skinner embarked on an extraordinary poetic project – the elaboration of short poetic fictions. In the intervening years he has become a master of this charged and compelling form. These short poems are exquisitely compressed narratives delineating and exposing lives often within a relational context. The narrators are a diverse bunch: adulterers, deviants, adventurers, lovers, friends, whose utterances and scraps of dialogue frame the foibles, truths, frailties and enduring alliances between characters strewn across a variety of contexts. In some of the poems there is an undisclosed but implied secret that entreats the reader to return, to name what has been conflated and intuitively sussed, and to define the intriguingly elusive and alluring truth of the poem. There are very few books of poetry that you would run back into a burning building to retrieve. Make no mistake, An Upside Down World is one of them.” 

KNUTE SKINNER was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1929, but has had a home in Ireland since 1963. In America he has taught English and creative writing at Iowa University and at Western Washington University. Salmon Poetry has published ten previous books: nine poetry collections and a memoir. In addition, books and chapbooks of poetry have appeared from The Dolmen Press, Burton International, Northwoods Press, Aquila Press, Pierian Press, The Goliards Press, The Folly Press, Trask House Books, Pudding House Publications, Pavement Saw Press, and Lapwing Publications.  A limited edition of his poems, translated into Italian by Roberto Nassi, appeared from Damocle Edizioni, Choggia, Italy.  Skinner has conducted poetry workshops in Ireland and in America. He lives in Killaspuglonane, County Clare with his spouse, Edna Faye Kiel. He recently celebrated his 90th birthday.