Rate My Professor Ray McManus

Ray McManus serves as Professor of English and Interim Executive Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs at the University of South Carolina Sumter. He earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of South Carolina in 2006, M.F.A. in Poetry in 2001, and B.A. in English in 1997, all from the University of South Carolina. McManus began his academic career as Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he joined the University of South Carolina Sumter as Assistant Professor of English in the Division of Arts and Letters, promoted to Associate Professor in 2014 and Professor in 2018. He directs the South Carolina Center for Oral Narrative and serves as Writer in Residence at the Columbia Museum of Art.

A distinguished poet, McManus has published six books: The Last Saturday in America (Hub City Press, 2024), Found Anew: Writers Responding to Photographic Histories, co-edited with R. Mac Jones (University of South Carolina Press, 2015), Punch (Hub City Press, 2014), Red Dirt Jesus (Marick Press, 2011), Left Behind (Stepping Stones Press, 2008), and Driving through the country before you are born (University of South Carolina Press, 2007). His poems appear in prestigious journals including POETRY, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, Pinch, Yemassee, and South Carolina Review, and anthologies such as Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry, Open-Eyed and Full Throated: Irish American Poetry, and Archive: South Carolina Poetry Since 2005. McManus's poetry engages themes of Southern working-class life, loss, faith, rebellion, and Irish immigrant memory. His accolades include the Governor’s Award for the Arts (2023), Jasper Artist of the Year for Literary Arts (2020), Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Book of Poetry in North America (2015), South Carolina First Book Prize in Poetry (2006), Marick Press Prize in Poetry (2011), John J. Duffy Award for Teaching Excellence (2019), Chris Plyler Award for Outstanding Faculty Service (2018), Hugh T. Stoddard Sr. Award for Outstanding Faculty (2017), and USC Sumter Professor of the Year (2011-2013, 2015).