Malaria kills nearly one million people each year. Hundreds of millions more are sickened by the disease, and many of them are permanently disabled. Billions are spent each year to understand it. Researchers know the molecular details of the interaction between the mosquito and our own red blood cells, and the myriad ways in which malaria impacts the global economy and the advancement of humanity. But what of the public? Though its story is told in thousands of articles and in hundreds of books, many in the developed world are unaware of how prevalent malaria still is.

Malaria, Poems testifies to the importance of bridging the chasm between science and art. It adds thread to a tattered and tragic global narrative; it is poetry's attempt to reawaken care in a cold case that keeps killing. According to Cicero the aim of the orator is threefold: to teach, to delight, and to move.

Poets during the renaissance embraced this idea, and Malaria, Poems reinvigorates it. Allen Ginsberg called for a poetry of social consciousness, a "bare knuckle warrior poetics". Cameron Conaway, a former MMA fighter, offers Malaria, Poems both as a response to Ginsberg's call and as a new call to contemporary poetry.

About the Author
Cameron Conaway is Executive Editor at GoodMenProject.com, a former MMA fighter, and an award-winning poet. Conaway's work has appeared in The Guardian, ESPN.com, Rattle, and The Huffington Post.


Book Information
ISBN 9781611861440
Author Cameron Conaway
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Michigan State University Press
Publisher Michigan State University Press