Winner of the 2020 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize The Clearing navigates the evershifting poles of violence and vulnerability with rich imagination and a singular incisiveness quotasserting feminist viewpoints and mortal terror in lush musical linesquot New York Times The women in Allison Adairs debut collectionluminous and electric from the first line to the lastlive in places that have been excavated for gold and precious ores They understand the nature of being hollowed out of being quotthe planets stone core as it tries to carve out one secret place and failsquot And so as these poems take us from the midst of the Civil War to our current era they chart fairy tales that are at once unsettling and painfully familiar never forgetting that cruelty compels us to search for tenderness quotWhat if this timequot they ask quotinstead of crumbs the girl drops teeth her own what else does she havequot Adair sees the dirt beneath our nails both alone and as a country and pries it gently loose until we remember something of who we are quotfrom before from a similar injury or kissquot There is a dark tension in this work and its product is wholly quotan alchemical feat turning horror into beautyquot Boston Globe
