Savannah Sipple's debut is proof of a woman rising-up from the strung-out, Christ-haunted carcinogens and violences of a land stripped of its coal, up fromnine-hours on her feet followed by the extra work back home of picking gravel out of pinto beans, up from a return visit to the honey-suckle sweetness of goodchurch folks who whisper 'backslider' and 'quare.' Purging shame with every line, these poems love the Kentucky from which they rise as much as they reject theself-hatred that place instilled in a girl neither thin nor straight, and ultimately (and yes, even miraculously), emerge blatant about desire and body-proud. 'I want tobe marbled, so that if you were to slice me, you'd know what a good cut I am, ' Sipple writes. Open this book to any poem to get a taste of exactly what she means."- Nickole Brown, author of Sister & Fanny Says