REVIEWS OF BOOK

In this evocative debut collection, Kathy Nelson shares with us her fundamentalist upbringing in Texas, her grandmother’s wisdom… “when things are bad, a woman carries on,” her aunt’s bountiful dinner table. She explores love and loss - what is yearned for, what is freely-given or withheld. She tells us, “I wanted love as lush as cattails growing on the banks of the Sabine, love to soak this parched land.”

• NANCY SCOTT, Poet

Kathy Nelson’s first collection of poems reflects a powerfully perceptive life journey. Peering outward from her unique inner experience - she holds, explores, analyzes, savors and ultimately frees her truths. Through her sculpted language, enhanced by deft brush strokes, she renders herself visible, pulling us so completely into her fold that we hear her clear, soft but distinct affirmation: “This is what must not be missed -/ this bright moment.”

• MOLLY SEALE, Author

Kathy Nelson’s powerful chapbook Cattails presents a narrative at once mysterious and fully apparent. Focused through the lens of family, class, and place, her tales acquaint the reader with the lost father “familiar as my own face, yet I cannot see you,” with the dark mirage and miracle of daughters. Kathy Nelson’s poems offer unerring personal and cultural histories - there is admirable exactness in her language and striking honesty in the telling.

• KATHERINE SONIAT, Author