Pretty Marrow

Beware appearances, the poems of Pretty Marrow seem to argue. That scrap of paper might be an albino trout, your grandmother a wolf, your beloved house an act of arson waiting for the fated night. In her debut collection, Shanan Ballam looks trouble squarely in the eye—whatever its source. The result? A book of brave, unflinching witness, tempered by the promise of transformation. A book you’ll want to get your hands on. Why continue to wade through swamps and freezing snow? Why ask searing questions? Like the rest of us, her speakers hope to be “swirled away to a place unblemished, where light can pour its honey on your face.” —Lance Larsen, Poet Laureate of Utah