Mare's Nest

Holly Mitchell is a poet from Kentucky, now based in New York. A winner of an Amy Award from Poets & Writers, Holly received an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College. Holly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Steaming (an online publication by Fence), Afternoon Visitor, and the Lambda Literary Poetry Spotlight, among other journals.

• I. Muybridge’s Horse inMotionNightmareAfterbirthGates in theWindTurning Out (The First Year) SeparationsTheBlood BayHazard SignGlosa on RebirthKentuckyRiver PalisadesFor My Mother, Baking hubarbBW 45mm,1996Vulgar PhaseWhen We Moved to the CountryTheGoslingWisp,PeregrineTetherFoalingNightBreadWhite-Failed awnII. WeaverLumpkinCountyHenhouseThe Last Porch SitGreat GrandmaWeaverInvocationGainesvilleEarthboundBottleRocketsCarpentryAs We Sang on Cinder BlocksYourBonfireHorse TheaterPatti Smith’s HorsesTheTornado’s WarningI Hope I Didn’t Write a South Where NoOneAcknowledgmentsLexicon

Literary Hub, “25 New Books Out Today!”Book Riot, “Reflecting on Spring's Poetry” by Connie PanSouthern Review of Books, "The Best Southern Books of April 2023"Jewish Book Council "Recommended Reading"Autostraddle, "Close Out National Poetry Month by Preordering Queer Poetry Books"Honorable Mention in the 2023 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award"Springing from her years growing up on a horse farm in Kentucky, the memoirlike free-verse poems in this first collection from the Amy Award–winning Mitchell are powered by visceral images related to breeding and raising horses."—Library Journal“The poet’s knowledge of and confidence in her subject are deep and clear, as are the observations, questions and discoveries. The writing is as taut and rippling as a thoroughbred in the first turn of a race she’s sure to win.”—Henry Hughes, New York Journal of Books"Whether drawing attention to sounds—'of the warble fly / nested under skin, / making a whistler / of the riding horse'—or depicting a horse who 'appears almost / elegant, ewe-necked / but fescue-footed,' these poems immerse readers in the world of Kentucky horse breeding, a bodily world of afterbirth and syringes, of 'Regu-mate / with cracked corn.'"—Rebecca Morgan Frank, Poetry Foundation's "Harriet Books""I devoured Mitchell’s intimate debut collection.... Unfolding in two parts, this delves into, of course, horses and family, names, and growing up on a farm. Beyond the gorgeous cover, gorgeous poems await."—Connie Pan for Book Riot"Her poems are a lilt­ing med­i­ta­tion on par­ent­ing as a con­duit for active choice."—Elisheva Fox, Jewish Book Council "Recommended Reading""This one’s for the horse gays! It’s about Kentucky, queer adolescence in the early aughts, and yes HORSES!"—Autostraddle, "Close Out National Poetry Month by Preordering Queer Poetry Books""Mare’s Nest . . . is a poignant exploration of the complexities inherent to Southern life, family dynamics, and the symbolism of horse breeding."—Rachel Thomas, Good River Review“‘Thecamera can make a fool of a realist,’ says the speaker in the opening poem ofHolly Mitchell's debut collection Mare's Nest. Thisclaim⁠—equal parts provocation and invitation⁠—prepares the reader for thevivid portraits that follow: part family lore, part coming-of-age, partnaturalist study. Human intimacy is translated into the language of the stable,the pasture, the horse farm; the precarity of a mare's life speaks to humanstrength and fragility. The beauty and ecstasy here arise from language thatfeels newly coined, never-before-heard. In these spare poems, vulnerability anda radical openness to the other⁠—both human and animal⁠—sing withoutsentimentality.”⁠—CatherineBarnett, author of Human Hours"Written in the cadence of a mad gallop, the poems are held back, thenset free to expand and unravel. Like a horse at the starting gate—readying forthe race, its heart, electric, its body pulsing with terror and exuberance,Mitchell’s Mare’s Nest is the poetry collection we have all beenwaiting for."—Cynthia Cruz, author of Hotel Oblivion"Fullof both ache and praise, Mare’s Nest is a calling, aconjuring, a blessed airborne gallop embodying all the love and complicationsof home. This collection stuns, stunts, envelops, rises, and arrives trailingwith shelled green beans, the gulping of creek water and the pregnant sigh andheat of longing, searching, finding exactly who we are and where webelong."—EllenHagan, author of Blooming Fiascoes"Mare’s Nest is precise and haunting,spoken with the finest grit of red clay between the teeth. Plainly stating thenecessities and brutalities of horse breeding, here you will look into the'near opal' eyes of a moonblind horse, witness what’s known as 'a red bagbirth,' when a dam presents a placenta before her foal. At the same time, HollyMitchell turns her unflinching gaze to her family and to Kentucky itself—toosage oranges and snap beans, tornadoes and tobacco barns rotting back into theearth. Distilled down as the finest bourbon and just as warmly burning, thesepoems are rendered to their essentials, stripped of stereotypes andsentimentality, ‘trying to turn / & face everyone / where they’re coming from.’” —Nickole Brown, author of Sister"Ican’t remember the last time such compelling poetry was made out of a subjectso intensely specific— Nick Flynn’s Blind Huber comesto mind, or Thomas Lynch’s Skating with Heather Grace.Not only will you learn a lot about horse placentas, but you’ll be dropped intothe intimate dailiness of a Kentucky farm and a family, with Mitchell’sbeautiful and bittersweet specificity as stark and gripping as ElizabethBishop’s. And there’s a lexicon at the end! This is a book whose subject isoften the past but whose place is firmly with us in the present.”—MatthewRohrer, author of The Sky Containsthe Plans