Sowash, ShenandoahThis collection is, more than anything, a series of self-portraits. It attempts to depict how various speakers move through suffering, madness, addiction, lust, heartbreak, and settings ranging from rural Ohio to Brooklyn. The diction and syntax suggest both pathos and comedy, often within a single line. The ordinary experience becomes an opportunity for exploration and discovery, and sites of tragedy are not sites of victimhood, but spaces for productive play.ThesisAmerican Literatureaddictionpoetrywomanhood