Blue Atlas

(Paperback)

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Description

Blue Atlas is a stark abortion narrative unlike any other. This one-of-a-kind collection follows a Jewish family and its ghosts as they travel from West Africa to Europe, and finally, to the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The speaker searches repeatedly for a new outcome, seeking answers in a myriad of mediums such as an online questionnaire, a college essay outline, and a curriculum vitae. The raw, often far from idyllic experience of a global love affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy is examined and meditated upon through a surreal prism. The Blue Atlas, a genus of the common cedar tree first found in the High Atlas of Morocco and known for its beauty and resilience, becomes a metaphor for the connections and heartbreaks of a fully engaged life.

Author Bio

Susan Rich is the author of eight books, including Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems, as well as Cloud Pharmacy, The Alchemist's Kitchen, Cures Include Travel, and The Cartographer's Tongue: Poems of the World. Her poetry has earned her awards from Fulbright Foundation, PEN USA, and the Times Literary Supplement (London). Individual poems appear in the Harvard Review, New England Review, O Magazine, and Poetry Ireland, among other places. Susan is co-editor with Kelli Russell Agodon of Demystifying the Manuscript: Creating a Book of Poems. She teaches at Highline College and directs Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women from Seattle. Susan currently resides in Seattle, Washington.