(COLUMBIA, Tenn. - Oct. 5, 2017) - - - Jeff Hardin, Columbia State Community College professor of English, recently released his fifth book, "No Other Kind of World," an award-winning poetry collection published by the Texas Review Press. The book recently won the prestigious 2016 X.J. Kennedy Prize.

According to Hardin, "No Other Kind of World" explores our "need to witness miracles" within a world that too often favors "soapbox diatribes/or mournful tones." He continues, "Perhaps we no longer recognize our own faces. We wander an immeasurable world, one in which the self-attempts to know what knowing is, and calls out to others, searching for survivors this side of the millennium."

Despite new threats of "a coming Inquisition," Hardin "charts a course toward mercy," seeking "the kind of understanding/that comes when two or more are gathered."

"No Other Kind of World" is filled with a multitude of themes -loss, renewal, awareness, generosity and mystery. Hardin said that the collection has an echoing undertone of immensity and immeasurability and while he has his own views of his collection, he always looks forward to the interpretations from his readers.

In a recent book review, Erica Wright states that Hardin "confront[s] the universe's mysteries" and that there is "a timelessness" to his work. She says, "Readers are left with a realistic sense of wonder by this honest, beautiful book."

The cover of the book is a painting by Fred Behrens, former Columbia State art professor. Behrens was instrumental in helping Hardin to select the cover for his first book, "Deep in the Shallows," published in 2002.

"How fitting that I was able to use Fred's painting," Hardin said. "I have always valued his perspective as a working artist. There is no other world but the one in which we help each other to see more vividly the miracle of our own existence."

Hardin is also the author of "Fall Sanctuary," "Notes for a Praise Book," "Restoring the Narrative" and "Small Revolution." He has won many awards for his work, including the Nicholas Roerich Prize and the Donald Justice Poetry Prize - more than 500 of his poems have been published in journals around the country.

"My poems are a record of what I think," Hardin said. "I write down the things that are streaming past in my life. I feel like I reach in everyday and try to find something that I have never thought about before."

Hardin earned his bachelor's in English from Austin Peay State University and his master's in creative writing from the University of Alabama.

You can learn more about Hardin and his works at http://jeffhardin.weebly.com/. Hardin will be at the Southern Festival of Books Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. talking about poetry. For more information about the Southern Festival of Books, please visit www.humanitiestennessee.org.

Photo Caption: Jeff Hardin, Columbia State professor of English, is a Hardin County native and currently resides in Columbia.

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