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The Necessity of Wildfire

Poems
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The Necessity of Wildfire by Caitlin Scarano is a powerful poetry collection that navigates family violence, the challenges of escaping home, unravelled relationships, and complex explorations of sexuality. Drawing on Scarano's Southern upbringing and life in the Pacific Northwest, the poems vividly evoke landscapes marked by floods and wildfires, while delving into human and animal intersections. The collection confronts legacies of violence, the death of an estranged father, and personal decisions such as not having children, all conveyed with fierce lyricality and a refusal of both blame and redemption.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This collection is ideal for readers interested in contemporary poetry that addresses difficult personal and social themes with emotional depth and strong imagery. Fans of lyrical explorations of identity, trauma, and nature will find Scarano's work compelling.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Award for poetry

Winner of the Wren Poetry Prize selected by Ada Limón, Caitlin Scarano's collection wrestles with family violence, escaping home, unravelling relationships, and the complexity of sexuality.

The Necessity of Wildfire: Judge Ada Limón says the resulting collection is "hungry, clear-eyed, tough, and generous."

Scarano's imagination is galvanised by the South where she grew up and by the Pacific Northwest where she now resides—floods and wildfires, the Salish Sea and the North Cascades, and the humans and animals whose lives intersect and collide there. In this collection, Scarano reckons with a legacy of violence on both sides of their family, the death of their estranged father, the unravelling of long-term relationships, the complexity of their sexuality, and the decision not to have children. With fierce lyricality, these poems—"stories without monsters, stories without morals"—resist both redemption and blame, yet call in mercy.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781949467789

Publisher: John F Blair Publisher

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 19 May 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: John F Blair Publisher

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 177.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 80

About the Author

Originally from Southside Virginia, Caitlin Scarano (she/they) is a writer based in Bellingham, Washington. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They were selected as a participant in the NSF's Antarctic Artists & Writers Program and spent November 2018 in McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Her debut collection of poems isDo Not Bring Him Water. Her work has appeared inGranta,Entropy,Carve, andColorado Review.

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