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Joe Mills grew up in Indiana, and, in the first thirty years of his life, he kept moving farther and farther West, earning literature degrees at the University of Chicago, University of New Mexico, and the University of California, Davis. He spent a year in Bordeaux where he met his wife, and, after living for a couple years in the San Francisco Bay area, they moved to North Carolina. Joe teaches writing and Humanities courses in the undergraduate academic program at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In addition to Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers, he is the author of Somewhere During the Spin Cycle and A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries. He also recently edited A Century of the Marx Brothers. www.JosephRobertMills.com

Midwest Book Review

Reviewed by Laurel Johnson

Joseph Mills is a teacher, writer, and poet whose work has been featured in numerous journals and magazines. In his first full-length book of poetry, he skillfully infuses mundane daily happenings with tenderness and power. "Talking to a Miner in the Columbine Café About the Memory of Bone" is a perfect example of the power he draws out of obscure moments in time. I quote the first verse:

He says what bothers him most

is having to wear the watch on his right.

He keeps trying his left,

cinching the leather

strap deep into the skin

but it keeps slipping off….

"As if Motion was Action" employs metaphors to draw readers along on a harrowing journey:

Drive long enough

and mile markers skitter

across the road

like rabid shadows,

the "winding curves"

snake

from their signs,

the pavement itself

shrugs, stretches, twists

until you're convinced

you're riding

the back of a living thing.

Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers collects over fifty poems about wine from Joseph Mills, the author of Somewhere During the Spin Cycle and co-author of A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries. The poems range from humorous observations about the industry to meditations on aging. In accessible, yet evocative, language, Mills suggests our relationship with wine can be seen as a metaphor for our lives and relationships with one another.

"To Joe Mills a glass of wine reveals a little of 'the almost infinite risk in being who we are.' Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers is, then, a collection of revelations, truths to be found in and about wine. Witty, mordant, melancholy, funny, these bright poems fix and illumine the many moods we may encounter in a bottle of happy red. I shall recommend this volume most heartedly, saying, 'Here, I think this / will help make things a little better.'"

~ Fred Chappell, author of Family Gathering

"This is a big release. Joe Mills’ hearty poetry, like the wine that inspires it, is the mirror of the mind. From first sip to finish, nothing compares to Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers."

~ John P. O'Grady, author of Grave Goods and Pilgrims to the Wild

“Joe Mills takes the chestnut of wine as a provider of truth and gives us something wonderfully original. These poems are smart without being stuffy, humorous but never coy, and full of startlingly sharp details that took my breath away. Mills' observations about love, intimacy, and the smallest details of domestic life make this collection full of nuance, longing, and, yes, truth. “

~ Lindsey Crittenden, author of The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray

“In Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers, Joe Mills dips in and out of the wine barrel with poems running the vineyard from sober to passed out on the tasting room floor, making for a fun read. In his poem "The Good Nights,’ Mills writes "On the good nights/when the bottle's empty/we always want/ just a little more..." and that's how I felt when I'd finished the last poem.

~ Matt Mason, author of What We Don’t Know We Don’t Know

“Reading Joe Mills’s poetry I feel like I'm on a tour with a guide who knows where he's going, introducing me to ways of seeing something familiar in an entirely new way that leaves me feeling better than when I started.”

~ Stephanie Sarver, author of Uneven Land: Nature and Agriculture in American Writing

"Moonrise Bay Winery" evokes the weariness and worry experienced by a vintner. The excerpt quoted here, however, shares a small moment of joy:

You walk the green rows, pulling off clusters

of fruit until juice covers your arms

attracting clouds of butterflies. Here is

your harvest: these clapping wings of color,

these sweet handfuls of temporary grace.

"When My Students Ask Why They Need Poetry" is the teacher-poet's answer, as honestly as he

can give it:

….These poems won't

get them a job or a raise. They may never

feel a connection, need, or desire,

but they may also find in the waiting

room, at the head of the banquet table,

along the road, or by the grave, a poem

will say for them what they cannot…..

These are poems borne of the poet's heart and spirit as he gracefully spins fleeting moments into memories. Mills experiences life deep into the marrow and shares his visions with readers. The striking cover art, "Sudestada" by Liliana Italiano, entices the eye and prepares readers for the profound poetry inside the book. If you enjoy poetry, Mills' work is highly recommended.