Apart

Apart grew out of Taylor's memories of visiting her family in South Africa as a child and her later curiosity about her (white) mother's involvement in early anti-apartheid women's groups. Mixing narrative prose, poems, social and political theory, and found texts culled from years of visiting South African archives and libraries, Apart navigates the difficult landscapes of history, shame, privilege, and grief. "Everything begins as duality (the personal and the historical, ideas of white and ideas of black), and becomes more-even hopelessly-complex...It is not so much that everything is dual, but as Taylor eventually notes, a 'jammed hinge.' Everything remains, as the title has it, apart. In exploring the unresolvable, everything becomes a part." -Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Ploughshares