Through the tangled branches of life, Kelsey Day’s second collection of poetry, rootlines, emerges as a testament to embracing the unknown. The collection blurs the lines between the human and non-human world, colonial perceptions of nature, and pays testimony to the Appalachian mountains that have long been abused by the fossil fuel industry. Day’s lyrical and impassioned voice invites readers into the solace of these conversations. Both literary and accessible, rootlines is a collection about place, risk, and grief - about the roots we grow from and the branches we reach with.

These are poems grounded in place; it is therefore essential to recognize that southern Appalachia as we know it today was built on stolen land. Donate to the Indigenous Environmental Network here.