Dearly Departed

What a vibrant, necessary new voice in American poetry via Hayley Bowen's Dearly Departed. Buy it, read it, watch whatever comes next from this blazing talent.-Mary Karr, author of The Liar's ClubIn her debut collection, Hayley Bowen delivers a haunting look at the impermanence of life and love. Exposed and enduring as the Sonoran Desert, Bowen lifts her words from the palette of life's travels and travails. At its heart, Dearly Departed explores life's penultimate question: "Is my story-my life-worth remembrance"? With exquisitely crafted poetry interspersed with deeply reflective prose, Bowen pens her blood on the page with lines such as "nostalgia is violence" as she delivers an unsentimental query of self-worth. Dearly Departed celebrates the ruins of life, love, and death, as open-hearted as the Joshua tree extending its arms for mercy, hope, and resilience.-Matthew Bauman, Black Hills State University