Praise for Illinois, My Apologies
"Readers will no doubt be disarmed by Justin Hamm's dry wit and crisp lyricism, but the real power here is the underlying current of heartfelt narrative, the remarkable balance of sadness and humor, the stark observations of society and self in all their muddy, Midwestern glory."
—Michael Meyerhofer, author of Blue Collar Eulogies and Leaving Iowa
“Justin Hamm’s Illinois, My Apologies, is a true work of art. With its lyrical wordplay, Hamm’s work is reminiscent of Dylan Thomas’s, but his poems are firmly planted in the fertile soil of the Midwest. This collection is a love song to masculinity and loss, and to a land that doesn’t always love us back, despite its vastness.”
—Shaindel Beers, author of A Brief History of Time