A Hastening Countdown from Infinity, is the fourth poetry anthology by George Grace, compiling poems from his first (American Stonehenge) and second (Night Wanes, Dawn) books, plus many more recent poems.
From having been shot in the leg with an arrow at age six, surviving the sinking of his father's boat in the swells of the mighty Niagara River, to escaping the flames and smoke of Bethlehem Steel's Coke Ovens, to beating the odds against lung cancer and Guillain Barre Syndrome, Grace has been perfectly molded by chance and self-determination to tell tales through his verse.
Grace's humor takes the sting out of some of the grim realities of modern life, and mocks the absurdity of senseless conflicts. He speaks to the contradictory freedom and loneliness of the road, the prospect of settlement of other planets for waste containment; and summarizes the many thoughts racing through his mind as he falls off a twenty-five-foot ladder.
Grace, George: - George Grace has worn many hats in his lifetime: playwright, poet, fiction and nonfiction writer, visual artist, tournament chess player, tournament volleyball player and coach, steelworker, home remodeling contractor, teacher, editor, publisher, columnist, musician, actor, social activist, and campaign manager-each in his quest to be creative and find his niche in Buffalo, New York, where he spent his first forty-nine years. As a playwright, he saw six of his plays staged in western New York from the late 70s through the mid-80s, most notably The Eviction, and A Divine Apprentice, the latter selected for the first Area Playwrights Series at the Buffalo Entertainment Theatre.George taught writing at SUC at Buffalo, Attica State Correctional, Villa Maria College, for the Circleformance Streetwriter's workshop, and for Writers-in-Education in the Buffalo Public Schools. He is the author of articles published in national arts magazines, and three books of poetry, American Stonehenge; Night Wanes, Dawn; and Steeling America-A Poetic Memoir of Lackawanna's Bethlehem Steel Plant. He also founded and ran a successful writers and musicians showcase in Buffalo and worked as a columnist and investigative reporter for the Buffalo Alternative Press.His art has been selected for many regional, national, and international exhibitions, winning numerous awards, and has been represented by several galleries in Western New York, Nashville, and Soho. In November 2008, he became the 75th president of the Buffalo Society of Artists, and served four nonconsecutive terms. A master chess player, he competed in three World Open Tournaments in the '80s, attaining the prize round each time.In June 2000, nine months after his wife, Donna, lost her bid for the Buffalo City Council, they moved to Nashville, Tennessee. In 2002, they moved back to Buffalo, where he returned to working as a home improvement contractor, taking on side jobs lecturing on Theatre of the Absurd and Existentialism, and teaching art and writing. In 2012, he became a partner in Meridian West Art Gallery in Buffalo's Hertel Avenue district, which in addition to showing some of Western New York's finest art also hosted music, poetry readings, and writing workshops. It closed two years later.In 2018, he returned to college to earn his BA degree some fifty years after first attending college. He was nominated for an Artie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design for his work in a production of The Full Monty at Subversive Theatre in Buffalo, NY.He is a survivor of squamous non-small cell lung cancer and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, the latter of which he got from a flu shot.
