Bright Shade -

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Award, selected by
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jericho Brown.

Bright Shade is an appreciation of the wild woods, the rolling hills, the Appalachian air, and the little rivers that were the setting of Chelsea Harlan's upbringing. The poems speak through the liminal space between the body and its relationships to other bodies, and the human relationship with nature--and so climate change is, inevitably, part of this book's undercurrent of grief. As the author navigates the high highs and the low lows of delight and despair, Bright Shade articulates the wonder that accompanies sadness and the sadness that accompanies joy. Chelsea Harlan's work is as melancholic as it is humorous, indeed bittersweet, and a little bit strange in just the right way.

About the Author

Chelsea Harlan was born and raised in Appalachia. She holds
a BA in Literature and Visual Art from Bennington College, as well as an MFA in
Poetry from Brooklyn College. Her chapbook Mummy, written in collaboration with
London-based painter Daisy Parris, was released by Montez Press in 2019, and
her chapbook Country Music was released from Two Plum Press. She received the
2021 Robert Watson Literary Award from The Greensboro Review for her poem "Some
Sunlight," and she received the 2019-2020 Mikrokosmos Poetry Prize for her poem
"Grimaldo's Chair," selected by sam sax.