Editor Alex Cigale on my Beowulf

“What makes Joshua Gray’s “verse adaptation with young readers in mind” immediate and powerful is its tender tone: it is addressed to his son, in the same understated, hushed voice of expectation as a will and testament, that it contains a coded message to be passed down from the son, who is father to the man, to his own son and so on. Moreover, being written “with young readers in mind,” and not “for young readers only,” makes it truly special, for in making Beowulf more accessible he has done the time-honored service of digest and abridgement for busy adults as well, and in doing so has helped this reader for one focus on the story’s essential message; that it’s very telling — not just its symbolic content but the form itself — represents the eternal bond between fathers and sons and so between all men.”

— ALEX CIGALE: poet, editor, translator, cyclist, spirit/road warrior