Two 8211 Headed Nightingale

Poetry. "These poems describe the outside world with a luminous grasp of detail, clarity, connection. Soon enough in every poem it seems the external world is giving way to a subtle interior of feeling and nuance. What is surprising is the command of language and music in which this occurs, and the sheer precision of both. There are pleasures on every page here, making this one of the best debut collections I have read."—Eavan Boland

"Shara Lessley has a scrupulous eye for the natural world, for the detail of memory, for the seemingly ordinary in which she often finds the surprise, the bizarre, or a painful past. In language that is sharp and clear, in forms that are disciplined by a discerning mind, she also explores the lives of liminal women and American outsiders. This is a first book you shouldn't miss."—Peter Balakian

SHARA LESSLEY is the author of Two-Headed Nightingale and The Explosive Expert's Wife. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, her awards include an NEA, the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Olive B. O'Connor Fellowship from Colgate University, and a "Discovery"/The Nation prize, among others. With Bruce Snider, she co-edited The Poem's Country: Place & Poetic Practice. She currently lives in Oxford, England.