Animal Studies

Creature

"These are poems rooted in landscape and memory, about mothers and daughters, love and mourning, and the harrowing context in which we now find ourselves."
Natalie Eleanor Patterson, Jacar Press, author of Plainhollow

"Kathryn Kirkpatrick’s keen eye beholds a bird’s nest held within work gloves, a wonderful metaphor for her luminous poetry that reminds us how form is good for tender things. With the collies, crows, butterflies, wrens, cows, and calves she loves, the dying mother she grieves, the former self she remembers, the beautiful, startling poems of Creature invite us to experience the necessary embodiment of care. Hers is a welcome, passionate, brilliant voice guiding us through the joys and the storms of living with creaturely awareness."
Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat

"In Kathryn Kirkpatrick’s alluring and brave collection Creature, the poet divides her work into three sections: Creatures, Created, and Canines. Her playful alliteration underpins the ecological, the familial, and the inter-species communications that distinguish her imaginatively courageous poetry. Relationships abound, from daughter-with-mother to human-with-dog. The wisdom of creatures—and the misunderstandings, too—sparks a fierce interplay of ideas, weaving what Kirkpatrick calls “the yarn of kinship.” The smart, subtle Kirkpatrick stakes out fresh territory in family and animal relationships, all the while giving us superbly crafted poems that blend head and heart."
Molly Peacock, author of The Widow's Crayon Box

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