James Raymond Daniels (b. 1956) is a professional writer from Detroit, Michigan. He earned a BA in English and Spanish from Alma College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. He is currently a professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has taught since 1981. His recent books include Birth Marks (2013) and Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry (2011), Eight Mile High (2014), and Trigger Man (2011). He has written four produced screenplays, including "The End of Blessings” and "No Pets." He won the Tillie Olsen Prize from the Working-Class Studies Association for "Street," a book of poems accompanying the photographs of Charlee Brodsky. He also won the Signpost Press chapbook contest for "On the Line" (1980), first prize from Passages North poetry contest for "My Father Worked Late" (1983), was a fellow of National Endowment for the Arts (1985), Wisconsin/Brittingham Prize for Poetry from University of Wisconsin Press for "Places/Everyone" (1985), Pennsylvania Council on the Arts literature fellowships (1987, 1990), and the Pushcart Prize for "Day of the Two Bodies" (1994). He has edited or co-edited four anthologies, including "Letters to America: Contemporary American Poetry on Race," and "American Poetry: The Next Generation." His poetry has been been featured on Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac," Billy Collins' "Poetry 180" anthologies, Ted Kooser's "American Life in Poetry," Rita Dove's "Best American Poetry 2000" series. At Carnegie Mellon, he has received the Ryan Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Mark Gelfand Service Award for Educational Outreach, the Elliott Dunlap Smith Award for Teaching and Educational Service, and a Faculty Service Award from the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association. As Daniels is quoted in CA: "Much of my poetry has focused on blue-collar life in my native Detroit. I feel that there is little poetry being written about the world that I come from and the people that I care about. I try to give a voice to those who are often shut out of poetry, to explore their lives both in and out of the workplace. If nothing else, I'm trying to say these people are important, that their lives have value and meaning."