“In No Man’s Land” by Paige Ackerson-Kiely

Despite its title, In No One’s Land is far from a lonely dispatch from barren territory. It’s more like a settler’s journal — Little House on the Prairie set in the mountains and narrated by a chain-smoking Laura going commando. Ackerson-Kiely’s free-verse poems typically start with an observation of the domestic or rural world, then shift into a shadow-world accessible only through the play of words or memory. This shift can be disorienting but also gives the reader a brief giddy sensation, like putting on someone else’s glasses. Read on>