Bone Willows

James Engelhardt lived for five years in Fairbanks, Alaska, with his wife and daughter. He was active in the poetry community there. His poetry has appeared in North American Review, Natural Bridge, Terrain.org, Ice Floe, and many other journals. His critical work has appeared in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association and Mid-America Review. He is an acquisitions editor at the University of Illinois Press.

“James Engelhardt’s outstanding first collection explores the tensions as well as the wonderment of a family adjusting to life in the far north. As seasons shift and the deep cold moves in, the details of change are observed with grace and precision. These poems work together beautifully offering the reader a striking picture of a harsh and fascinating land.”—John Morgan, author of Archives of the Air, The Bone-Duster, and Spear-Fishing on the Chatanika“James Engelhardt has written a spectacular book of poetry set in Alaska where he tries ‘to root if I can.’ . . . In this place of extremes, poems push against barriers—between lovers, ‘the exquisite earth’ and its ice, forest and mountain, to unfold wings and survive winter. . . . Buy this wise book, read it and travel.”—Hilda Raz, author of Trans and What Becomes You