Swan Bones. Bethany Bowman

Swan Bones is a book about small towns and the people who inhabit them. Its poems follow the author from the hills of the Mohawk Valley to the cornfields of East Central Indiana, where she's lived for nearly a decade. They deal in everyday ironies, and it is in these spaces that Bowman crafts a unique vision defined by her stark honesty, distinctive lyricism, and persistent hope. She proffers quartz crystals despite layoffs; moonflowers, which only open when night falls. The poems practice a hard faith, and invite us to do the same.