Jill McCorkle, MFA Faculty member in Fiction, recommends:
"Dorianne Laux’s 'Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems' is a beauty. It is a chance to revisit her earlier masterful works as well as sink into the new poems under the umbrella of the title. These new poems focus on the life of Laux’s mother, a complex portrait that renders one unsure which way to run: into her arms or away from her sharp eyes. It is the journey of a daughter’s grief—the grief of her mother’s death coupled with a child’s longing for what was lost or missing in life. Along with sadness and loss, she finds grace and redemption and love, most notably in objects as simple as her mother’s slippers or her old colander: 'Bowl daylight fell through/ onto freckled faces, noon stars on the pavement…’
“Laux is a wonderful story teller, bringing scenes and images to life in ways you will never forget. This is a book I will go back to again and again."