"
All Blue So Late emerges from the beautiful refusal to choose between lyric and narrative modes. Part adventure novel, part tragic opera, part psychosocial quest, this collection goes 'bildungsromaning' on its own fiercely original course. The journey is symphonic, layered, and gripping. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell's first collection has been eagerly anticipated for good reason: her voice holds
'[g]hosts/ dissolving on an outstretched tongue' and movingly gifts language with
"the benefit/of new intention.'" –Mary Szybist, author of
Incarnadine: Poems "
All Blue So Late is a collection of libretti for agitated souls. Each poem has deeply inventive and disturbing candor. Laura Swearingen-Steadwell is narratively fearless. Her ghosts and demons rise from a deeper place than I could have previously imagined. If there is a template for the autobiographical/ mystical dimensions of this book, it perhaps is
'The Woman Pouring Handfuls of Ash.' The fabrics of this poet's experience may at first seem torn to pieces and then, to a careful reader, finally reveal themselves as whole-cloth and entirely beautiful. An immensely talented poet.
" –Howard Norman, author of
Next Life Might Be Kinder
