Description: Lyrical and well-crafted, this collection of poetry presents some of Jamaican poet Shara McCallum's best work. While touching upon various topics--including migration, identity, family relationships, motherhood, mental illness, storytelling, folklore, and myth--these poems transform the most painful and sometimes mundane details of life into works of terrible and satisfying beauty. Emotionally engaging and intellectually stimulating, this compilation celebrates the poetics of both the Caribbean and of North America.
Review Quotes: "A remarkably accomplished book, ranging from childhood to parenthood, Jamaica to America, in a way that feels integrated and organic. With mature hindsight, Shara McCallum revists early experience with a piercing clarity . . . exposing its undercurrents in the present. Intimate, serious, and beautifully crafted, these poems scrutinize the griefs and beauties of familial life and memorialize them with meticulous care." --Chase Twichell, author, Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been, on This Strange Land