Praise for The Heiress/Ghost Acres
“‘Why was I unprepared to be so loved?’ Where parenthood is the catalyst to politics, Lightsey Darst’s conjoined book grows question after question. How might we survive in a motherland designed to purchase motherlessness? How can we—connected in both silence and radiance—be worth our children’s light? In the bloody midst of a magicless empire, ‘What magic empire might I still build from my blood?’ Dissenting what’s given, she asks and asks and asks. And every so often an answer flowers out: ‘My child is climbing my everything, / climbing the tree of my mind / so I must furiously grow / this apple she’s seeking.’ In other words, Darst is offering us the seeds we need most: restlessness, honesty, awe, and reckoning.” —Chris Martin
Selected praise for Lightsey Darst
“[Darst] has the unique ability to express motion with words.” —MPR
“This is a vital poetry of the Deep South ripe with bones, blood and bogs . . . a harrowing stew of lust, dusk and summer.” —The New York Times
“Simultaneously vulnerable and self-assured, Darst’s verse will have you clamoring for everything she’s ever written.” —Bustle
“For Darst, to remember is to claim ownership of one’s pain and, by extension, one’s humanity.” —Publishers Weekly
“As they carve their way through this markedly contemporary landscape, Darst’s readers will likely have trouble separating the dreams, desires, and fears the speaker expresses from their own—the text of these poems is everything you might catch yourself thinking, and everything you might hope someone else could share with you.” —The Arkansas International
“[Thousands] has an intimacy about it that speaks to the tenderness inside the reader. . . . Don’t be surprised if there’s a catch in your throat when you read." —Signature Reads
“Dear fear, dear darkness, dear misunderstandings, dear life, dear lost-in-myself, I am no longer afraid of you. Now I have this book. I have Lightsey Darst’s amazing and ecstatic meditation on being a person in the world, I have these poems to guide me, I have her bravery and wild mind, I have her spells and wisdom, I have these incredible poems to carry with me wherever I go.” —Matthew Dickman
