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Available May 26. Preorder now
979-8-9952981-0-6
In Reconciliations, Mistee St. Clair’s debut poetry collection, she explores the universal condition of grief. Of Tanana Athabaskan descent, St. Clair writes of the loss of a parent, first through adoption and the cultural and ancestral loss that follows, and then, in a powerful sequence of poems, of the loss of her birth father to addiction and death. She writes of the challenges of mothering her children as they become adults and of finding a new identity as her marriage ends. In facing these losses, she learns that reconciliation begins with connections: with herself, her dead father, her children, her partner, and the world. Tinged with the bittersweet, grounded in place—in poems that range in length, style, and subject—the poet’s voice is clear. These brave, honest poems don’t skim the surface; they find deeper meaning, believing in love, hope, and renewal, ultimately arriving at their own spirituality, seeing life through the twin lenses of curiosity and love, even in the midst of perpetual rain.
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“In this stunning new collection, Mistee St. Clair seeks to reconcile the immense joys of our world with its crushing losses, showing us how to live well on the earth, within our given and chosen families, and in our own fragile bodies. Over four sweeping sections, St. Clair maps a universe of streets and homes, landscapes and family, memories and longings, contemplating what we inherit, what we pass down, and what we create. Her work walks in darkness and light with equally steady footing, guided by friendship and unconditional love, tuned into the cyclical echoes and shifts that move us through seasons and a human life. I cherish this book and its revelations.” —Amanda Moore, author of Requeening
“In Reconciliations, poet Mistee St. Clair grapples with identity—as daughter, mother, wife, and, perhaps most poignantly, as a person searching for the very origins of connection. The poems attend closely to the intertwined bonds of land and family, exploring them across shifting perspectives and moments in time. This is embodied grief work, alive to both messiness and wonder. It resists easy summary, instead dwelling in the vivid particulars that draw the reader back again and again.” —Erin Coughlin Hollowell, author of Every Atom and Corvus and Crater
“St. Clair’s poems explore what it means to claim a complicated lineage, one inflected with grief and with rain, while also marked by moments of radiant joy. In the birth of stars, tsunami warnings, and in how one cell consumes another, the poems rename the familial and filial. With grace and curiosity, St. Clair’s work asks how we know who we belong to and offers a path to understanding “[w]hat should be renamed, or called again, or called new?” —Annie Wenstrup, author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories
Available May 26. Preorder now
979-8-9952981-0-6
In Reconciliations, Mistee St. Clair’s debut poetry collection, she explores the universal condition of grief. Of Tanana Athabaskan descent, St. Clair writes of the loss of a parent, first through adoption and the cultural and ancestral loss that follows, and then, in a powerful sequence of poems, of the loss of her birth father to addiction and death. She writes of the challenges of mothering her children as they become adults and of finding a new identity as her marriage ends. In facing these losses, she learns that reconciliation begins with connections: with herself, her dead father, her children, her partner, and the world. Tinged with the bittersweet, grounded in place—in poems that range in length, style, and subject—the poet’s voice is clear. These brave, honest poems don’t skim the surface; they find deeper meaning, believing in love, hope, and renewal, ultimately arriving at their own spirituality, seeing life through the twin lenses of curiosity and love, even in the midst of perpetual rain.
_________________
“In this stunning new collection, Mistee St. Clair seeks to reconcile the immense joys of our world with its crushing losses, showing us how to live well on the earth, within our given and chosen families, and in our own fragile bodies. Over four sweeping sections, St. Clair maps a universe of streets and homes, landscapes and family, memories and longings, contemplating what we inherit, what we pass down, and what we create. Her work walks in darkness and light with equally steady footing, guided by friendship and unconditional love, tuned into the cyclical echoes and shifts that move us through seasons and a human life. I cherish this book and its revelations.” —Amanda Moore, author of Requeening
“In Reconciliations, poet Mistee St. Clair grapples with identity—as daughter, mother, wife, and, perhaps most poignantly, as a person searching for the very origins of connection. The poems attend closely to the intertwined bonds of land and family, exploring them across shifting perspectives and moments in time. This is embodied grief work, alive to both messiness and wonder. It resists easy summary, instead dwelling in the vivid particulars that draw the reader back again and again.” —Erin Coughlin Hollowell, author of Every Atom and Corvus and Crater
“St. Clair’s poems explore what it means to claim a complicated lineage, one inflected with grief and with rain, while also marked by moments of radiant joy. In the birth of stars, tsunami warnings, and in how one cell consumes another, the poems rename the familial and filial. With grace and curiosity, St. Clair’s work asks how we know who we belong to and offers a path to understanding “[w]hat should be renamed, or called again, or called new?” —Annie Wenstrup, author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories