Description: A Red Knock-Knocking like a Heart chronicles a mother's harrowing journey through infant loss and a disastrous hospital birth, while also exploring the joyful complexities of raising a neurodivergent child. Using image and sound derived from the beauty of the natural world, Kate Gaskin's poems sift through grief while tapping into the sublime state that underlies loss and love.
Brief description: Kate Gaskin is the author of Forever War, winner of the Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Southern Review, and Ploughshares, among others. She directs Adroit Journal's summer mentorship program and is an assistant editor for TRP: The University Press of SHSU.
Review Quotes: "Kate Gaskin's A Red Knock-Knocking like a Heart depicts a heart breaking and repairing in slow motion, but the most striking thing is the quality of this book's light--sadness and grief are as bright as the sun, a mass of nuclear fusion shining with excruciating brightness into all the hurt places, filling them with love. An extraordinary collection."--Niina Pollari