In the Hands of the River louise Mann's language is as plainspoken

Mann's language is as plainspoken and clear as it is provocative

Pretty-shield

at others amusing

but Mama's skin is the color of sand

over a cup of tea

In the Hands of the River louise Mann's language is as plainspokenWhat can we do but seek nectar where it blooms, whispers the porous and questioning speaker of In the Hands of the River. With delicate precision, In the Hands of the River subverts traditional poetic forms to show how a childhood for a queer boy of both Cherokee and European heritage happens within and outside dominant narratives of Appalachia. This debut collection weaves ancestral and personal threads of trauma, reclamation, and survival into a