The Girl Singer: Poems

In Girl Singer, poet Marianne Worthington often blurs the lines between the historical and the romantic, much like the artists to whose songs and stories she pays careful attention and homage. Locals or country music fans will recognize the names and histories documented here, but even those unfamiliar with these references will understand the intricacy and intimacy with which they are woven together. From Tom Dula to The Carters to Patsy Cline, Girl Singer not only documents this wealth of stories with care and accuracy, but it also dares to venture into the subjects’ innermost thoughts.

The speaker places her personal life on the same level of importance as the subjects of local stories, elevating the collection from a simple report of facts into a work of art. Her own family history dances among those of celebrities. The collection is as invested in the poet’s own life as it is in Appalachia as a whole. With poems about birds and the moon, the collection also harbors an abundance of natural imagery that highlights the dramatic details of the speaker’s daily life, even within the mundane. Skillfully divided into three distinct yet harmonious parts, cantillating local, familial, and personal histories, Girl Singer is a collection of lyrical and descriptive poems that offer unique insight on famous and infamous Appalachian tales from this life and the next.