James B. Nicola

James B. Nicola’s poems have appeared in the Antioch, Southwest and Atlanta Reviews; Rattle; and Barrow Street. The latest three of his eight poetry collections are Fires of Heaven, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice magazine award. A graduate of Yale, he has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels both stunned and grateful.

Origin Story

...we had already parsed the difference between mortal sin and venal sin, in preparation for our first confession, but this particular Sin, she tried to tell us, was something we all were born with, not anything we actually did.

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