Year of the Cicada

<p>On the cusp of her thirtieth birthday Mei-Mei returns to her hometown to find it swarmed by the mysterious 17-year cicada which last appeared when she was twelve and on the edge of adolescence. The emergences of these biblical Mid-Atlantic insects intersect with Mei-Mei's evolving understanding of an absent grandmother a mixed-race heritage and the long shadow of suicide giving her the tools to connect these profound threads together.</p><p>In poetry and lyric prose <em>Year of the Cicada</em> delicately charts one woman's coming of age between two appearances of the heralding insect through which the speaker navigates heavy silences intimate moments and the terror of uncertainty.</p>