Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Poetry. Women's Studies. California Interest. "At the same time expansive and intimate, Kelly Grace Thomas's debut collection navigates issues of loss, family, and agency. BOAT BURNED invites us to witness the pains and subsequent joys of rebirth--'The boats that built me / smoke on shore.' Thomas's voice shines like a lighthouse beacon--guiding us through the difficult memories and toward the future's open waters."--Paige Lewis
Synopsis
Kelly Grace Thomas's debut collection, Boat Burned, explores what happens when we burn our boats and shows us why we must. It examines the relationships women are forced to vessel: to family, to faith, to femininity. The collection interrogates the ways we are taught to be women, recounts what the body carries, asks what happens when we outgrow the love and loyalties we are raised to obey. Boat Burned delves into themes of hunger, divorce, violence, and our relationship to our own bodies, as it reminds us we are every boat we have lived and every boat we have set ablaze in order to build anew.