Lambflesh (Kelsay Books, November 2019) is author Caroline Shea’s debut poetry collection. The chapbook investigates and complicates traditional narratives of girlhood and coming of age through lush, lyrical language. Poet and novelist Jenn Givhan (Girl With Death Mask, Trinity Sight) writes “Lambflesh crackles with stark and magic-stung survival songs (...). These poems are dark and potent and myth-heavy; they unbandage the stigma from mental health issues and sing ‘as refusal of erasure.’” Shea’s poems are fascinated by the pleasures and betrayals of the body, constantly reaching towards an equilibrium where both joy and pain can coexist, even if that balance is ‘always / a negotiation.’ Editor of Best American Poetry 2019, Major Jackson writes of the collection: “I confess: I am drawn to poems that break me into a tenderness I’d never known. Caroline Shea’s Lambflesh does it over and over.” This chapbook introduces a unique and ranging poetic voice that will captivate readers with its empathy and eye for detail.

Paperback
59 Pages
Kelsay Books, 2o19
$16.00

Kelsay Books: https://kelsaybooks.com/products/lambflesh

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lambflesh-Caroline-Shea/dp/1950462161