Jackie McManus
THE BOOKS
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Related to Loon
ISBN-13-9880770074082
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As poignant as they are powerful, Jackie McManus's poems explore humility, humanity, and the ever-shrinking distance between the two. Her work is as rooted as an oak tree, as propulsive as a salmon stream, and as breathtaking as the Alaskan landscape of which she writes. Don't just read her poems, allow them to become a part of you.
B.J. Hollars, Associate Professor and author of many literary essays and nonfiction novels, most recently Midwestern Strange, and winner of the Society of Midland Authors Adult Nonfiction Award
Drawing from her experience teaching Yup'ik children on the Alaska tundra, McManus has composed a bittersweet ode about an ancient isolated village on a collision course with the modern world. At turns, tragic and hopeful, always poignant, her voice is authentic. Related to Loon is a compelling read.
Dale Brandenburger, author of Grizzly Trade
The Earthmover's Daughter
ISBN-9781979758857​
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"The Earthmover's Daughter bears unflinching witness to both personal and cultural loss, offering the enduring consolation of hard-earned, detailed, and ultimately redemptive language. The daunting ambition of these poems is best summed up by Jackie McManus herself -- "to rend apart delusion/to get to what is tender and terrifying." Readers will be pleased to discover these lovely poems fulfill that high ambition.
Max Garland, author of The Words We Used For It and former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin
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The poems in this debut collection unearth dark family secrets long hidden beneath the surface where most would let them fester. When McManus pulls them up into the light, the reader is struck with anguish, but then she bathes these horrors in the warmth of forgiveness, and we are allowed to heal and move forward. Simply powerful and carefully crafted with explosive language. I look forward to her work for years to come.
Tim Schell, author of Road to the Sea, The Drums of Africa, A Writer's Country, and Morring Against the Tide