The Bone Picker
Publisher: Finishing Line PressISBN: 979-8-89990-588-9Genre: PoetryPrice: $20The Bone Picker follows the life of a woman from childhood, through the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood, and the recalibration of empty nesting. Though the narrative arc begins in darkness and confusion, there is an unburdening as the story resolves on a note of hope and reconciliation.
Lisa Underwood received her MA in journalism from the University of NC at Chapel Hill, and her MFA in creative writing from Queens University. She has written for newspapers and magazines and worked in public relations for corporations and educational institutions. Her creative writing has appeared in several journals and anthologies. She lives in Greensboro and enjoys teaching beginning writers in small workshops around the state.
Reviews
The Bone Picker is an intensely lyrical collection, drawn forward by an elegiac impulse that is as unsettling as it is moving. These are well-crafted poems with a distinct voice and an original vision. What delights this reader is how (Underwood) draws on her influences–Gjertrud Schnackenberg and W.S. Merwin, most notably and directly–to produce poems that are clearly her own. She is a poet at the beginning of her career, yet her poems have force and authority. This is an impressive book.
Morri Creech, award-winning poet and Pulitzer prize finalist
Lisa Underwood’s poems are touching and true to life. She uncovers her word paintings by slowly sharing with us the deep challenges of life. What we might think is going to be a sunny picture changes as we read, as she skillfully pulls away the veil and reveals the shadow beneath. She has given us a carefully crafted and very promising first book.
Linda Beatrice Brown, poet and novelist
Lisa Underwood allows the careful choice of words and images that hide within them–both the quotidian and the metaphysical–to convey meaning and feeling. The fact that I weep when I read her poems over and over again is enough proof to me that I am listening to a born poet.
Katerina Katsarka Whitley, author of Myth and Memory: My Childhood in WWII Greece