Poetry. Appalachian American Studies. New title in the Working Lives Series from Bottom Dog Press. "Chris Green's RUSHLIGHT is a powerful new book of poems. Rushlights were made from rushes growing in marshy ground by old-time working people as substitutes for candles, to push against the darkness of the night. For me, Chris's poems light the world in a similar way. I see better in my own dark through these brilliant poems, for which I thank this very necessary writer"--Gurney Norman, Kentucky Poet Laureate and author of KINFOLKS: THE WILGUS STORIES.
Author City: LEXINGTON, KY USA
Chris Green was born and raised in Kentucky and now teaches at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. He is active in the Appalachian Studies Association, and works for recognition of Appalachian literature. He is the author of RUSHLIGHT: POEMS (Bottom Dog Press, 2009) and The Social Life of Poetry: Appalachia, Race, and Radical Modernism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
"RUSHLIGHT is as generous and sensuous as Whitman, but it's more grounded in rough domesticities: dank basements, littered front yards, and cat-rich bedrooms of the Midwest and Appalachia. Green uses literal sumps and sumptuous language to dredge lost stories from floods of time and despair; as he puts it, 'orgetter, plumb the dark corner.' A poet equally at home singing about political canvassing and climbing grain silos, Green is a courage-teacher. We need more like him."
—Philip Metres, author of TO SEE THE EARTH