Once, there was a canal.

What began as a three-page account of Hyatt’s grandmother’s stories of the lives of her Irish great-great grandparents’ immigration to America, blossomed into a unique approach to genealogical storytelling in Once, There Was a Canal. Liza Hyatt heard the family stories, collected them, and expanded them, tracing the very steps of her predecessors. While insisting that her words were to be written broadly with slanted perspectives more so than non-fiction writers, Hyatt also insisted that the historical details in her poems be accurate. She biked, walked, interviewed and drove the places of her ancestors until satisfied she could feel their journey during Indiana’s historical canal era, and then she crafted it in the beauty of the poetic style. Tom Castaldi, author Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series