The Heiress/Ghost Acres

Praise for The Heiress/Ghost Acres "'Why was I unprepared to be so loved?' Where parenthood is the catalyst to politics, Lightsey Darst's conjoined book grows question after question. How might we survive in a motherland designed to purchase motherlessness? How can we-connected in both silence and radiance-be worth our children's light? In the bloody midst of a magicless empire, 'What magic empire might I still build from my blood?' Dissenting what's given, she asks and asks and asks. And every so often an answer flowers out: 'My child is climbing my everything, / climbing the tree of my mind / so I must furiously grow / this apple she's seeking.' In other words, Darst is offering us the seeds we need most: restlessness, honesty, awe, and reckoning." -Chris Martin Selected praise for Lightsey Darst "[Darst] has the unique ability to express motion with words." -MPR "This is a vital poetry of the Deep South ripe with bones, blood and bogs . . . a harrowing stew of lust, dusk and summer." -The New York Times "Simultaneously vulnerable and self-assured, Darst's verse will have you clamoring for everything she's ever written." -Bustle "For Darst, to remember is to claim ownership of one's pain and, by extension, one's humanity." -Publishers Weekly "As they carve their way through this markedly contemporary landscape, Darst's readers will likely have trouble separating the dreams, desires, and fears the speaker expresses from their own-the text of these poems is everything you might catch yourself thinking, and everything you might hope someone else could share with you." -The Arkansas International "[Thousands] has an intimacy about it that speaks to the tenderness inside the reader. . . . Don't be surprised if there's a catch in your throat when you read." -Signature Reads "Dear fear, dear darkness, dear misunderstandings, dear life, dear lost-in-myself, I am no longer afraid of you. Now I have this book. I have Lightsey Darst's amazing and ecstatic meditation on being a person in the world, I have these poems to guide me, I have her bravery and wild mind, I have her spells and wisdom, I have these incredible poems to carry with me wherever I go." -Matthew Dickman