Rung by Rung

This debut poetry collection ponders class and labor, father-son relationships, and the natural world through both conversational and exploratory lyricism. The poems in Rung by Rung delve into the labor and ecology of Western Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, centering both built and wild environments. Whether toiling under a broken-down car or soaring into the imaginary, this collection is a rare blend of lyrical and conversational, formal and free, funny and serious, high and low, of decay and growth. Rung by Rung takes its readers foraging and fishing, into abandoned malls and run-down hockey rinks, and interrogates masculinity and family drama from a working-class perspective with delicacy and precision. This powerful debut announces Mike Good as a compelling new voice in American poetry.