Lyrical and highly charged, these poems examine the strengths and frailties of the human psyche as it functions under the stress of loss, disappointment and mortality. As the poet struggles with reality's continuing failure to satisfy basic human needs, she develops a deepened reliance on the imagination as a source of restorative powers.

"I like Christine Garren's poetry for its fervor and idiosyncrasy. It lives in the common places of daily life but opens into mysterious invisible orders. Afterworld is a strange and compelling book by a gifted visionary artist."—W. S. Di Piero

"In Afterworld, Christine Garren calls up again and again how it feels to be touched by some relatively familiar thing that happens. A cluster of balloons rises from a birthday party, night falls, and it is left for her to sing about the separate moments with remarkable and unforced grace. Her poems confirm that there's as much at stake in evanescences as we've always suspected but not found ways to say."—James McMichael

"The language seems but a shade, a muted rendering of Garren's images, so concrete and ethereal, knowing and innocent. If this reviewer is being abstract it's because these poems do that to you—they create an arrangement of words, so that, for a while, I believed there was none other."—Harvard Review

In poems of haunting lyricism, and in a voice wholly unlike any other American poet, Christine Garren's second book of poetry explores common themes such as love, loss, and family with an uncommon sensibility. Among the Monarchs is filled with unforgettable metaphors, unconventional and unpredictable juxtapositions, turns and angles of perception, and seductive free verse rhythms. Through all of this, Garren captivates readers in a unique exploration of the nature of desire, the raptures and burdens of love and loss, the peculiarities of family life and, perhaps most compelling, the power of poetic imagination to shape what we see and feel. At once engaging and disquieting, Among the Monarchs attests to the inexhaustible possibilities of lyric poetry.