Kimberly Ann Priest - Böcker

Winner of the Backwaters Prize in PoetryWolves in Shells is a modern monomyth telling the story of a woman navigating homelessness, trauma, and memories as she attempts to leave a violent partner. Reflecting on her familial heritage, this survivor grapples with the way she, the women of her history, and her daughter have been conditioned to accommodate the demands of the male ego and predation. Reflective, clear-eyed, and incisive, the poems of Wolves in Shells feature O-Six, a wolf born into the rewilding territory of Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s who serves as a metaphor for women who must cope with violence and survive on their own. Drawing from Gaston Bachelard’s quote “wolves in shells are crueler than stray ones,” the narrative considers how survival requires a balance of protectiveness, risk, trust, and escape.

Set in rural Michigan, tether & lung embraces a level of honest sensuality and vulnerability as a heterosexual woman grapples with the needs of her own body while her closeted homosexual husband seeks solace in the animals he loves—his horses—directing the othering he feels within himself towards his wife and children. These poems probe the nature of relationships where emotional extremes are often held in tension and betrayals are not easily healed or resolved. Here, compassion and contempt face one another, asking difficult questions concerning gender, alienation, child-rearing, domestic violence, and divorce.