Ghost in the Archive

JENNIFER LOYD'S DEBUT COLLECTION, GHOST IN THE ARCHIVE, is a beautiful exploration of past and possibility through the life of Rachel Carson and a contemporary speaker who seeks her own truths. The paralleled journeys of the two women toward selfhood and knowing and love push back against worlds that want to define themselves. In dexterous poems that are narrative, lyrical, and as fragmented as our access to history, readers "eat the ashes of the archive," as we hope that in their ingestion we'll find certainty. But Ghost in the Archive reminds us that truth is an act of slow accumulation as "Remember, Body" snakes its way through the collection-only coming into its full view, like a ghostly spine, in the final pages. This researched, introspective, and brave collection will leave you wanting to dip back into the poems, like the oceans Carson loved, again and again.—Chet'la Sebree