Thornwork

Poetry. "'I know as much as I know,' Baumann writes, 'and still get out of bed.' And what trauma survivor has not marveled at this exact triumph? THORNWORK is a rigorous examination of the abundant hunger of both body and psyche to survive. This generous work confronts our inadequacies: 'We have tried you, language, but you have not been enough,' and nurtures even our most imperceptible efforts: 'I have almost enough courage to keep walking myself home,' offering a realistic portrait of the untidy endeavor to persevere."--Jeanann Verlee

"THORNWORK sings to the soft sleeping animal at the center of us all, and shows us that to love wrongly is still to love. It's a eulogy for the former self, a prayer, a ghost story. This is an urgent, spell-binding book." --Meg Freitag

"Ruth Baumann's THORNBROOK is painted with vertiginous desires, 'I wake up how a thief wakes up, one want at a time.' These poems explore what happens when we harm for or are harmed by that which we desire--'god is not a pitcher plant / It's us humans that eat each other.' Baumann leads us into a world that is both familiar and foggy, both lonely and suffocating, a world where 'Life fidgets everywhere.' It isn't Baumann's job to lead us back out--she is here to tell us what's at stake, she is here to show us the 'new angles.' Come in and have a look around. 'Make a sudden noise. See which animals in us come out.'"--Paige Lewis

Ruth Baumann is the author of THORNWORK (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), PARSE (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), these tornadoes (Dancing Girl Press, 2018), A Thousand Ars Poeticas (Sixth Finch, 2018), RETRIBUTION BINARY (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), wildcold (Slash Pines Press, 2016) and I'll Love You Forever & Other Temporary Valentines (Salt Hill, 2015). Her poems have been published in Colorado Review, Sonora Review, Sycamore Review, The Journal, Third Coast & others. She received an AWP Intro Journals Project Award in 2014. She holds an MFA from the University of Memphis & is a PhD candidate at Florida State University. Additionally, she is former Managing Editor of The Pinch literary journal, and also was Poetry Editor, Senior Poetry Editor & Assistant Managing Editor of the journal. She has taught both composition classes and creative writing workshops. She currently edits Nightjar Review with Tara Mae Mulroy.