Apocalypse Ranch

Poetry. Winner of C&R Press's 2009 De Novo Award for a first book of poetry. "Sara Burge's debut volume is a real barn-burner. In the poems of APOCALYPSE RANCH every word is written as if the human and animal lives of her native Missouri Ozarks depend upon it. With assiduous attention to detail, the 'rotting houses' and 'broken farms' of small-town America are given a realistic and often disturbing perspective. Burge's voice is decidedly her own--unapologetic, hard as nails, divulging the shotgun suicides and drowned children of families who are up to their necks in a 'Pomona Triangle' of rusted engine blocks and 'human insincerity.' In poem after poem, Burge pushes away the psychological barriers we erect with self-delusion, idolatry, or neglect, and gives voice to difficult truths about the human condition"--Marcus Cafagna.