The Map of What Happened (The Backwaters Prize in Poetry)

Poetry. I want a book of poems to act like a genuine book and not just a miscellany of the poets most recent work willy-nillied between covers. Susan Elbes THE MAP OF WHAT HAPPENED is just such a thoughtful integrated collection lovingly (and Im betting painstakingly) assembled occupying a space/time continuum all its own from beginning to end. This book is so much more than a sum of its estimable parts; there is such palpable life here because there are so many human lives in its pages. And this poet has a real stake in showing us the various ways in which they honestly matter. By the sheer power of her down-to-earth empathy and the resilience of her language she makes her people our people too.&;David Clewell Judge