ABOUT THIS BOOK

In a stunning and visceral debut, Noah Davis ushers in a new era of poems from the Alleghenyregion of Appalachia. In chronicling the river valley’s human and more-than-human worlds through acts of modern myth making, Davis expands the scope of contemporary American poetry. This soulful meditation on a neglected region of America reveals a legacy of lingering violence to land and animal alike. In striking stories and scenes, Davis portrays the spiritual cost of deep poverty, the necessity to ask for forgiveness, and the joy in praising the beauty still found in the steep hollows. These poems will cling to you like water on the soles of your boots.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

NOAH DAVIS grew up in Tipton, Pennsylvania, and writes about the Allegheny Front. His poems and prose have appeared in Best New Poets, Orion Magazine, North American Review, River Teeth Journal, Sou’wester, and
Chautauqua, among others.

REVIEWS

"In this enchanting and at times unsettling new collection, Noah Davis delivers poems set in the Allegheny region of Appalachia. The central character is Short-Haired Girl, whose experiences of abject poverty and encounters with the natural world reveal to us the land on which she and her family has lived for generations. This is a polyphonic collection; some of the voices are those of Snapping Turtle and Brown Trout. Even the compost pile has its utterances. Taken together, these voices demonstrate how everything is connected, and how attacks on the land and its animals are not without consequences for the people who live there, too."

— Lit Hub

2020 Weatherford Award for Best Books about Appalachia, Finalist

— Finalist, Weatherford Award for Best Books about Appalachia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

First Memory of Water

Drowning as Taught by Short-Haired Girl

Small Histories

Woman Who Will Be Short-Haired Girl’s Mother Plants Potatoes after a Night Trying to Conceive

Short-haired girl

Corpuscular

Ridge and Valley as Taught by Short-Haired Girl

Skins

Learning to Talk to Animals as Told by Short-Haired Girl

Saint Francis

Short-Haired Girl Visits Her Cousin Who Moved Back Home Last Week

Woman Who Catches Kingfishers

Short-Haired Girl Goes to Church

Thursday nights

How Blood Becomes the River

Brown Trout Tells Short-Haired Girl about the End of October

Short-Haired Girl’s Brother Watches Her Gut a Deer

Dream in Which I Sin and Weep Myself Awake

Kissing the Woman Carried in Bear’s Mouth

Hunger

The Language of Silt

Coyote Tells Short-Haired Girl about Loving His Brother

The Story of the Raven King as Told by Short-Haired Girl’s Brother

Murmuration on Bell Tip Road

Lightnin’ Hopkins Returns as a Bluetick Hound

Short-Haired Girl’s Grandmother Speaks of the Dead

What Names the Moon Gives

Short-Haired Girl’s Aunt Tells Her about November Again

In fields where junco

What Was Left

Short-Haired Girl Praises a Child on a Horse

Mending

Short-Haired Girl’s Aunt Tells Her about the Woman Who Eats the River

Feeding Hogs as Taught by Short-Haired Girl

Every day is a god

Oil as Taught by Short-Haired Girl

Winter Solstice

Short-Haired Girl’s Dead Cousin Visits

June Evening

Short-Haired Girl’s Father Catalogues Summer Afternoon

First Love as Told by Short-Haired Girl

Map of the Body

Short-Haired Girl Dreams of Her Family

Menstruation as Taught by Short-Haired Girl

Lottery Tickets

Short-Haired Girl Visits Her Brother

August Market

Snapping Turtle Tells Short-Haired Girl about Loneliness

What It Means for the Bear to Eat Ash

February New Moon

Short-Haired Girl’s Father Confesses Her Conception

Short-Haired Girl Stops Going to Church

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