On Sept. 14, I stood in the Veterans Room of the Oak Park Public Library where 100 people were gathered to hear me read from my new collection, Political Prisoners USA and Other Poems. When I retired in 2019 after 25 years as deputy director of the library, I could not have imagined that six years later I would be returning to share my poetry with the community that means so much to me. It was the fulfillment of a dream I did not actually realize I had — to convey my vision of a world of justice, a world without prisoners, through an art form I only had the chance to develop in this post-library phase of my life.
I have spent my life as a reader and had a full career at an organization dedicated to the open and abundant availability of books and information for all. So as I consider this journey from retirement to the publication of my poetry collection, I see a continuity from my library career to my life as a writer. I am grateful to tell that story.
Several days after I retired, I boarded a plane headed to Dublin, Ireland where my partner, Deborah Adelman, was professor in charge of a group of American students on their study abroad at Carlow College – St. Patrick’s, an hour southwest of Dublin. When I arrived, Deborah told me she had become friends with a fellow English professor, Derek Coyle, and we were enrolled in Derek’s class, Advanced Poetry Writing. Derek was an excellent teacher, and I found that I liked writing.
I continued writing after our semester in Ireland ended and began reading my poetry (shout-out to the Traveling Mollys Reading Series which in 2019 was based at the Buzz Café), and started submitting my work to poetry journals with some success. However, the more I got to thinking of myself as a poet, the more I realized how little I actually knew.
I looked into area writing programs, and began a master’s program at UIC, Fall semester 2020. This experience broadened my writing. A goal of the program is for poets to develop a manuscript, a goal I embraced and pursued. When I graduated, I had such a manuscript.
I spent a year polishing that manuscript with the aid of an editor, Elena Karina Byrne. This process prepared me to send the manuscript out to publishers.
On May 24, 2024, I received a letter from Broadstone Books offering to publish my manuscript as a book stating: “This one is fire. … We feel it is vital to present your words.”
It took over a year from then to see the book in print. During that time, I worked with other Oak Parkers: artist Tia Etu (Whatever Comes to Mind Gallery on Harrison) produced the artwork for the cover, photographer Paul Goyette took the author photo, and Jamie Ericson of Dandelion Bookshop, sold the book at the book launch at the Oak Park Public Library.
Poetry, at its best, is dialogue and conversation, an invitation to build community together. I hope members of our community will engage with my collection, and share their thoughts and perspectives.
“Political Prisoners USA and Other Poems” is available at Dandelion Bookshop, 139 S. Oak Park Ave. Jim Madigan is a longtime Oak Park resident and the former deputy director of the Oak Park Public Library.