Bright Shade

Winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Award, selected byPulitzer Prize-winner Jericho Brown.

Bright Shade is an appreciation of the wild woods,the rolling hills, the Appalachian air, and the little rivers that were thesetting of Chelsea Harlan's upbringing. The poems speak through the liminalspace between the body and its relationships to other bodies, and the humanrelationship with nature—and so climate change is, inevitably, part of thisbook's undercurrent of grief. As the author navigates the high highs and thelow lows of manic depression, Bright Shade articulates the wonder thataccompanies sadness and the sadness that accompanies joy. Chelsea Harlan's workis humorous, indeed bittersweet (bright / shade), and a little strange inexactly the right way.