Escape Velocity

Carmelita McGrath's Escape Velocity -- the long awaited follow-up to her Atlantic Poetry Prize-winning collection To the New World -- culls overlooked fragments from domestic lives and ferries them on unpredictable journeys. A conversation with a telemarketer becoms a monologue on overcoming loss, stray animals provoke cautionary tales shared between generations of women, and junk mail fosters a meditation on necessity, debt, and the inevitability of one's passing. From the elegiac to the playful to the meditative, McGrath effortlessly shifts from a natural refinement to a near-breathless elegance. Well worth the wait, Escape Velocity marks the return of McGrath's receptive intelligence as it gathers strength and takes flight.