Winner of the 2022 William Meredith Award for Poetry, The Wages of Love is a splendidly wide-ranging poetry collection, delving into the mysteries of love, the complexities of relationship, the joy of family, and the splendor of the natural world. As Margaret Gibson notes, the book is "finely crafted and deeply felt . . . a harvest of richly remembered and embellished moments whose nature includes inquiry, affirmation, passion, tender remorse, wistful encounter, honest compassion, wise joy. At home with narrative as well as with lyric reflection, Williams fully inhabits his poems with mellow humor and pleasure, without shirking the darker imponderables and challenges that come with learning to be fully human, or as he puts it, learning to be a 'good man.' This is a good man, and a good poet. How do we live, knowing that we will die? This ages-old question, though never asked directly in the book, may be central to these poems, which answer this way: we love. And the wages of love? More life: a tenderness toward existence, with all its endings and new beginnings." With The Wages of Love , Christie Max Williams offers us a stunning debut collection of poems. Finely crafted and deeply felt, the book is a harvest of richly remembered and embellished moments whose nature includes inquiry, affirmation, passion, tender remorse, wistful encounter, honest compassion, wise joy. At home with narrative as well as with lyric reflection, Williams fully inhabits his poems with mellow humor and pleasure, without shirking the darker imponderables and challenges that come with learning to be fully human, or as he puts it, learning to be a "good man." This is a good man, and a good poet. How do we live, knowing that we will die? This ages-old question, though never asked directly in the book, may be central to these poems, which answer this way: we love. And the wages of love? More life: a tenderness toward existence, with all its endings and new beginnings. -Margaret Gibson, Poet Laureate of Connecticut Several virtues are embodied in the poems that constitute Williams' debut collection, The Wages of Love , two of which distinguish the best from the good: compression and scope. A discerning command of craft worked at until the poem soars (even if it takes years), may gain the poet the first. The latter requires empathy, vision, the courage to take on a variety of subjects in a variety of styles, and a tenacious commitment to always feel more deeply, look longer, wrestle with the inarticulate angel until the dawn. There's sheer delight following the movement of Williams' especially curious mind as each poem creates-or uncovers-meaning. Besides, they're chockablock with inventive turns in dozens of linguistic ways; each is a boon and a blessing. Take up this book and give yourself to it. You will gain, as I have, from these wise, sensitive, splendidly written poems. -Gray Jacobik, author of The Banquet and Eleanor Christie Max Williams' debut poetry collection, The Wages of Love, won the William Meredith Prize. He is also a writer and actor. Though originally from California and then New York City, he now lives in Mystic, Connecticut, where he and his wife raised their daughter and son. He has worked as an actor and director in California, New York, and Connecticut. He also worked as a fruit vendor in Paris, a salmon fisherman in Alaska, a consultant on Wall Street, a writer for the National Audubon Society, and in leadership posts for non-profit organizations in whose causes he believes. He co-founded and for many years directed The Arts Café Mystic, which is in its 28th year of presenting programs featuring readings by America's best poets, complemented by music of New England's finest musicians. His poetry has been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies, and has won the Grolier Prize, placed second in the Connecticut River Review Contest, and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and Morton Marr Prize.