Since the House Is Burning by Suzanne Edison

Since the House Is Burning by Suzanne Edison

Suzanne Edison's gorgeously lyrical collection Since the House Is Burning understands one of the most important principles of poetry: that it first be a pleasure in language. Of course, these are often bittersweet pleasures, if a poet is willing to tell the truth of her experience as Edison does here (in this case, as a wife, mother, daughter; as citizen of a world on fire and a caretaker to many). Musically adept, formally precise, both

clear eyed and unfailingly empathetic in its worldview, it's a beautiful book-one any thoughtful reader of poetry will be glad to know.

-Erin Belieu, author of Come-Hither, Honeycomb, from Copper Canyon Press

Suzanne Edison's smart and lavish debut collection, Since the House Is Burning, never turns away from the harsh totality of our world; rather she treats us to poems that 'open like a slash of flesh.' Whether she is writing about her daughter's illness or the wildfires consuming the West, she illuminates the intricacies and complex relationships between individual sickness and the collective disease of the Anthropocene. This is a collection based on science, love, and keen attention. This is a voice that can be trusted. When Edison says, 'But I am not here to grieve. I want to know/ about the living to come. How to navigate//by scent. How the tree grows around a nail/ into which its point has bitten, ' we need to listen.

-Julia B. Levine, author of Ordinary Psalms, from the Barataria Poetry Series