Melissa Crowe is a poet and author of the chapbooks Cirque du Crève-Coeur and Girl, Giant. Her poems have appeared in Calyx, Crab Orchard Review, and Literary Mama. She is a coeditor of Beloit Poetry Journal and the coordinator of University of North Carolina Wilmington's MFA Program in Creative Writing.

From uncles and brothers to mothers and daughters, Melissa Crowe delivers searing poems that shine a light on all we inherit from our individual worlds and what we then build from those personal histories. This is a dazzling book - full of damage and love, yearning and astonishment."" - Matthew Olzmann""In these pages, you’ll find a poet who loves so deeply she refuses to turn away from the world, no matter how sour or broken. Crowe’s long-awaited debut shines with not just the intricacies of her life, but lessons of how we might each learn to better live our own."" - Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs""In this restless and disarming debut, as deftly crafted as the star and as lush and unpredictable as looming motherhood, Melissa Crowe displays lyrical mastery. This is skill meant to savor. And this is a poet who arrives as teacher. We’d be fools not to listen and learn."" - Patricia Smith