Talking Weird #193 Gray Barker's UFO Poetry with Gabriel Mckee

Gabriel Mckee is a librarian, curator, and author whose research focuses on UFO culture, science fiction, religion, and book history. His past work includes books on theology and science fiction, curating exhibitions on Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain, and working as part of the editorial team for PHILIP K. DICK'S EXEGESIS. Last year, he published THE SAUCERIAN: UFOS, MEN IN BLACK, AND THE UNBELIEVABLE LIFE OF GRAY BARKER with the MIT Press -- a biography of a controversial ufological trickster.

His latest book BEHOLD THE BEHEMOUTH: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF GRAY BARKER was released earlier this year.

BEHOLD THE BEHEMOUTH can be ordered directly from the publisher Apport Editions, here: https://www.abebooks.com/Behold-Behemouth-Collected-Poems-Gray-Barker/32406173691/bd

THE SAUCERIAN can be ordered from Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Saucerian-UFOs-Black-Unbelievable-Barker/dp/0262049546/

Visit Gabriel online, here: https://gabrielmckee.com/

Info about BEHOLD THE BEHEMOUTH:

A master storyteller, prankster, and mainstay of the UFO world, Gray Barker (1925-1984) is best known for his bizarre tales of Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. Barker is widely recognized for his skill as a prose stylist in books like They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers--skills that he developed through a lifelong practice of composing poetry, most of which remained unpublished at the time of his death.

In Behold the Behemouth, Gabriel Mckee (author of the biography The Saucerian: UFOs, Men in Black, and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker) compiles all of Barker's surviving poetry, from his early experiments as a college student through enigmatic verse about UFOs and other uncanny subjects in his later career.

At turns melancholic, otherworldly, and side-splittingly hilarious, Barker's poetical writings enrich the picture of midcentury ufology in general and the life of this peculiar literary outsider in particular.

Gabriel visits with Talking Weird to chat about the amazing life and poems of Gray Barker, who was one of the most influential and fascinating figures of Ufology.

This is an enthralling episode, filled with stories about early Ufology, that you do not want to miss!