Erika Meitner's fifth collection of poetry plumbs human resilience and grit in the face of disaster, loss, and uncertainty. These narrative poems take readers into the heart of southern Appalachia-its highways and strip malls and gun culture, its fragility and danger-as the speaker wrestles with what it means to be the only Jewish family in an Evangelical neighborhood and the anxieties of raising one white son and one black son amidst racial tensions and school lockdown drills. With a firm hand on the pulse of the uncertainty at the heart of 21st century America and a refusal to settle for easy answers, Meitner's poems embrace life in an increasingly fractured society and never stop asking what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.
"Erika Meitner is known for what's called 'documentary poetry,' which combines some of the journalistic work of the reporter with the subjective renderings of the poet. In fact, some of the pieces in this fifth book were written 'on assignment,' when Meitner was dispatched to an event and tasked with writing it up in poetry. (Perhaps this is the true antidote to 'fake news.'"
NPR Books 2018 Poetry Preview
"Reading one of Meitner's poems feels like having an intimate talk with a close friend over dinner; revealing the details of romantic encounters, and musing about the value of poetry. She's often wryly funny, and always tender."
