Landlocked

Julia McConnell is a poet and a librarian. Her chapbook, Against the Blue, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016. Her publications include Whale Road Review, Shark Reef, Right Hand Pointing, Plainsongs, Lavender Review, and other journals. Originally from Oklahoma, Julia lives in Seattle with her Jack Russell Terrier.

With humor, grace, the perfectly placed earthbound image, and ineffable longing, Julia McConnell writes of “things that seem unbearable” in ways that make them bearable, glorious, necessary, true. These poems reawaken forgotten yearnings, and remind one of the complexities of love and loss, landscapes, and home. Julia McConnell is an important new voice in American poetry, and Landlocked is a stunning debut.—Rilla Askew, author of Most American: Notes from a Wounded PlaceJulia McConnell’s Landlocked teems with all the strange, violent, and glittering ephemera of America’s forgotten places. With precise language, thrilling music, and unforgettable images, “we are drilled into the interior” of romantic and dangerous landscapes. In these poems, the reader rides shotgun while our guide narrates her singular dream—a dream in which illness, Elizabeth Bishop, diner breakfast, and gay bars weave seamlessly along the highway shoulder. I can’t remember reading a debut so complex and self-assured. Landlocked proclaims the arrival of a major talent.—Lisa Wells, author of The FixThe poet’s sense of place as central to both personal and public narrative strikes powerful chords with this reader, as do the diction, images, management of white space, and formal choices made in creating and assembling this powerful collection.—Thomas Lynch, National Book Award finalist The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade

• Contents Symptoms of Escape Fever Include Dillard’s Department Store Field Guide Coming Out in Oklahoma Elizabeth Bishop Swipes Right Tennessee Williams Speaks to Joe Exotic about the Southern Gothic Work: A Ghazal for Oklahoma Foreman of the Detasseling Crew As Much for Worship as Entertainment Tulsa 1998 The Next-to-Last Lesbian Bar in Oklahoma City The Land We Belong To Graciela Says Damnation Isn’t a Bad Word Cuz They Say It in Church Slip ’N Slide How I Spent My Summer Vacation An Education Grandma Minnie’s Wedding Band Boundless Elizabeth Bishop Reads My Horoscope At the Public Library Notes on Sky-Watching Blue Surprise Last Day of 37 June Valentine Scripture of the Fireflies Amuse-Bouche Postcards Sunday Morning Elegy for Karen Books, Boots, and the Blank Page Another Poem about the Wind About the Chicken Molly Marlova Magdalena McConnell Second Sight Speaks Long Lost Highway Love Song Pulling Runes Valentines 2018 January 8, Yelapa, Mexico In the New Year On Why You Should Change Your Life Every Seven Years I’m Sorry I Haven’t Sent the Letters I Promised I Never Told Anyone This Because It Just Happened This Morning Riding the Ferris Wheel at the Beginning of the Apocalypse Opera Man Serenades Us on a Pandemic Date A Brief History of Information Fernweh Is the Cure for Heimweh My Ex-Girlfriend, Oklahoma The Poem I Need to Write The Sky Responds to My Entreaties Notes Acknowledgments Series Acknowledgments