My Own Name Seems Strange to Me

Poetry. Karen Whalley’s second book takes up the question of identity in the face of isolation and loss. At its core are twin wounds–the death of a father and the end of a marriage–and the struggle to define oneself in the ensuing absences. Somewhere there is always light / To cast the world into shadows, she writes in the moving poem Dusk. And yet this collection teems with lucid observations of vitality and life–from the frail perfections of a butterfly’s wings to the grace of an elk in traffic. Whalley’s collection bravely questions the nature of self, and finds answers in unexpected places.