Of an Ilk

The 121st winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize offers a radiant meditation on grief and hope, queerness and mercyIn this volume, JC Andrews tells a lesbian coming-of-age story from the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks. Her poems—stories of the rural South and of mothers and grandmothers—hold questions as a form of caretaking. Andrews populates her work with kitchens, angels, chimes, horses, and moons, drawing us into a resonant landscape. She writes, “I dream about spinning / in this field until I dig a hole good / enough to lie in. I dream about / being stuck in it like a music box. / Play me, God. I want to know / what I sound like.”“These poems slice effortlessly through the grim malignancies of our present moment,” writes judge Monica Youn, “carving out new forms and opening up new spaces for love and survival.”