After entering the final product into contests, he received the 2019 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry<\/a>. The award facilitates the publication of a full-length poetry collection along with a standard royalty contract and a $2,000 prize.<\/p>\n The existential themes explored in \u201cIndex of Haunted Houses\u201d made their debut in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Davis took advantage of the unique circumstances by creating a hotline, or \u201ctelephonic companion,\u201d\u00a0 that anyone could call and hear different poems.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a really interesting and fun way for readers to connect to the book, since the majority of us were not able to leave our homes at that point,\u201d Davis recalled. \u201cThe majority of the readings I gave, for the first year at least, were all via Zoom until things opened up once more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPyrrhic Symphony\u201d will get a non-socially distanced release on Tuesday, Sept. 1. It\u2019s a long time coming, since Adams has been writing it in pieces since 2009.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first collection came together just because I had all these disparate poems and I was trying to put them in one collection,\u201d Davis said. \u201cBut the second one came together because I was really writing toward a book.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPyrric Symphony\u201d follows a more unified theme: breakdowns. But where those breakdowns occur \u2014 in personal relationships, politics and the environment \u2014 varies. It also raises the questions: How does art respond to tragedies and how does it help us withstand them?<\/p>\n The 84-page book contains fewer poems than the first, but they\u2019re longer. The prose is different, too, as Davis plays more with sound.<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, Davis is looking to surprise his audience.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt more focused just in the sense that I had an idea that I was writing against something,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first book established style and a kind of voice. I didn\u2019t want to write the same book over and over again. I wanted to do something much different.<\/p>\n \u201cI think \u2026 that confidence just came from being liberated from the concern of writing a first book of poems. Getting one book published is so hard, let alone two. So for the second one, I felt much freer. And I decided I was really going to lean into what I wanted to sound like.\u201d<\/p>\n This time, it took less than a year of contest submissions for Davis to secure the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize<\/a>, which promises publication through the University of Nebraska Press and a cash prize of $3,000.<\/p>\n Between writing \u201cIndex of Haunted Houses\u201d and \u201cPyrrhic Symphony,\u201d Davis has been consistently honing his craft. One of the venues for that is his classroom \u2014 he\u2019s in his 16th year at The Bishop\u2019s School.<\/p>\n \u201cThe beautiful thing about teaching something you love is that you\u2019re constantly engaged with it,\u201d said Davis, whose work also has been featured in journals and anthologies such as AGNI, The Best American Poetry and The Paris Review. \u201cSo when I\u2019m reading poetry with my classes or any other kind of literature, I\u2019m still engaged with that practice.<\/p>\n \u201cTeaching really flexes those same muscles as writing does. You\u2019re reacting, you\u2019re interpreting, you\u2019re using your analytical functions. That helps me keep sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n Away from the classroom, Davis is the co-creator and co-host of \u201cPoetry Goes to the Movies,\u201d<\/a> a podcast that combines his love of poetry and admiration of cinema. The show also is a product of the pandemic, as Davis met his co-host, film buff Colin Waters, during an interview about \u201cIndex of Haunted Houses.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Adam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LJL-L-POETRY-BOOK-01-01-02.jpg\")
Adam Davis\u2019 \u201cPyrrhic Symphony,\u201d winner of the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize, will be released Tuesday, Sept. 1. (Provided by Adam Davis)<\/p>\n