Ray McManus

Ray McManus is an American poet with three award-winning poetry collections.

He is an associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina Sumter.

McManus was born in Columbia, South Carolina.

As a student, he won the 1997 Academy of American Poets Award at the University of South Carolina.

He earned his M.F.A. in Poetry in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition in 2006, at University of South Carolina where he studied under Kwame Dawes and Ed Madden.

McManus's first book, Driving through the country before you are born won the 2006 SC First Book Prize in Poetry, was the winner of the South Carolina Poetry Prize, selected by Kate Daniels, and published with University of South Carolina Press.

2006 South Carolina First Book Prize in Poetry—selected by Kate Daniels

In 2008, he joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina Sumter and is an associate professor of English.

His second book, Red Dirt Jesus was selected for the Marick Press Poetry Prize in 2011.

2011 Marick Press Prize in Poetry—selected by Alicia Ostriker

In 2014, his third collection, Punch. was named best book of poetry in North America published by an independent press in the 2015 Independent Publishers Book Award.

McManus has published poems in Natural Bridge, Cold Mountain Review, Crazyhorse, Nimrod, Ellipsis, Borderlands, The Recorder, Los Angeles Review, Jabberwock, Asheville Poetry Review, Yemassee, Waccamaw, Arkansas Review, The Pinch, Pea River Journal, Barely South Review, moonShine Review, Steel Toe Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Blue Collar Review, Animal, Town Creek Poetry, Frank Martin Review, Jasper, and Apron Review.

His work has been anthologies in Traffic Life, A Millennial Sampler of SC Poets, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Remaking Moby, Seeking Jonathan Green, A Sense of the Midlands, and Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry.

2015 Independent Publisher Book Award -- National