Of This River
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Michigan State University Press
Published:1st Aug '20
Should be back in stock very soon
In a stunning and visceral debut, Noah Davis ushers in a new era of poems from the Alleghenyregion of Appalachia. In chronicling the river valley’s human and more-than-human worlds through acts of modern myth making, Davis expands the scope of contemporary American poetry. This soulful meditation on a neglected region of America reveals a legacy of lingering violence to land and animal alike. In striking stories and scenes, Davis portrays the spiritual cost of deep poverty, the necessity to ask for forgiveness, and the joy in praising the beauty still found in the steep hollows. These poems will cling to you like water on the soles of your boots.
"In this enchanting and at times unsettling new collection, Noah Davis delivers poems set in the Allegheny region of Appalachia. The central character is Short-Haired Girl, whose experiences of abject poverty and encounters with the natural world reveal to us the land on which she and her family has lived for generations. This is a polyphonic collection; some of the voices are those of Snapping Turtle and Brown Trout. Even the compost pile has its utterances. Taken together, these voices demonstrate how everything is connected, and how attacks on the land and its animals are not without consequences for the people who live there, too."
* Lit Hub *“Noah Davis is a poet whose capacious imagination runs on river sounds and open air. His remarkable debut, Of This River, fashions a modern myth from pastoral tragedy. Davis has written a poetic apologue of remembrance, one that helps clarify our irrefutable, yet tenuous place in this world.”
—ADRIAN MATEJKA, 2014 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry and author of Map to the Stars
ISBN: 9781611863741
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 15mm
Weight: 141g
88 pages