{"product_id":"wolves-in-shells-paperback-softback-9781496243706","title":"Wolves in Shells (Paperback \/ softback) 9781496243706","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eWolves in Shells\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eKimberly Ann Priest (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496243706\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 1 October 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e88 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e“In the first poem, Kimberly Ann Priest evokes a moment of ‘dismantled vigilance-nothing encroaching, nothing to hunt,’ and this becomes the quest of these stunning poems as the speaker moves through the effects of abuse and homelessness into a world free of predation. The voice in this book is strong, astute, and vulnerable as the poet reclaims her history and its fragmented beauty alongside the story of a wolf, her totem creature. Priest writes with a keen eye and great musical dexterity, creating a book that is both compelling and crucial.”-Betsy Sholl, Maine poet laureate emeritus and author of \u003ci\u003eAs If a Song Could Save You\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“Of wolves and shells, holy howls and spirals, does Kimberly Ann Priest weave her sacred tapestry of lyrical outpouring; in one poem she writes ‘because I feel like thunder often, dance like snow; because I am living.’ And her poems are so fiercely alive and soaring and plunging on the page that it both hurts and fills one up to read them. Hers is a startling new voice in American poetry that can never be forgotten.”-Robert Vivian, author of \u003ci\u003eAll I Feel Is Rivers\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eWolves in Shells\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful collection that details what it means to be a woman in the twenty-first century. In it, Kimberly Ann Priest documents a life of resilience after homelessness, abuse, intergenerational trauma, and witnessing the violence of America. Drawing from her cross-country travels and emotional connections to wildlife-particularly the wolves of Yellowstone National Park-Priest illustrates, in captivating detail, the strength of an individual woman who is both hunted and too often harmed but who ultimately ‘become[s] her own pack’ to ‘survive.’”-Sunni Brown Wilkinson, author of \u003ci\u003eRodeo\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the 2024 Donald Justice Poetry Prize\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“\u003ci\u003eWolves in Shells\u003c\/i\u003e by Kimberly Ann Priest is a piercing rebuke of ‘our dependency on machinery\/ that harms us.’ That machinery is patriarchy, marriage, and gender inequality. A blistering chronicle of a life lost-children, home, health-and regained. Muriel Rukeyser asked, ‘What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?\/ The world would split open.’ Each of these poems moves with the honesty of an ax.”-TomÁs Q. MorÍn, author of \u003ci\u003eLet Me Count the Ways: A Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Backwaters Prize in Poetry\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWolves in Shells\u003c\/i\u003e is a modern monomyth telling the story of a woman navigating homelessness, trauma, and memories as she attempts to leave a violent partner. Reflecting on her familial heritage, this survivor grapples with the way she, the women of her history, and her daughter have been conditioned to accommodate the demands of the male ego and predation. Reflective, clear-eyed, and incisive, the poems of \u003ci\u003eWolves in Shells\u003c\/i\u003e feature O-Six, a wolf born into the rewilding territory of Yellowstone National Park in the 1990s who serves as a metaphor for women who must cope with violence and survive on their own. Drawing from Gaston Bachelard’s quote “wolves in shells are crueler than stray ones,” the narrative considers how survival requires a balance of protectiveness, risk, trust, and escape.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eThe Howl\u003cbr\u003e Says the Mollusk\u003cbr\u003e I Wanted to Be a Boy\u003cbr\u003e When Anxious, They Tell Us to Make Our World Smaller\u003cbr\u003e Old Shell\u003cbr\u003e Wolf Story\u003cbr\u003e My Mother Wears a Bikini at South Haven Beach\u003cbr\u003e A Pedagogy for Lesser Bodies\u003cbr\u003e How to Do Subtraction\u003cbr\u003e Taxonomy\u003cbr\u003e Elegy for Charley\u003cbr\u003e Field Note on Gaston Bachelard’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eThe Poetics of Space\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Two Wolves\u003cbr\u003e Everything’\u003cbr\u003es Fine\u003cbr\u003e Open Mic\u003cbr\u003e Steven Turnball\u003cbr\u003e After Leaving\u003cbr\u003e I Don’\u003cbr\u003et Tell My Daughter I Wrote Another Wolf Poem\u003cbr\u003e Among Fingernail Clams\u003cbr\u003e Protections\u003cbr\u003e At the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum\u003cbr\u003e A Patch of Blue\u003cbr\u003e Luxuries\u003cbr\u003e On the Ishnala Trail\u003cbr\u003e Dad\u003cbr\u003e For Practical Purposes\u003cbr\u003e Because Memory, I Am Told, Is Unreliable-\u003cbr\u003e Irregular Patterns of Endangered Migrations\u003cbr\u003e Mountain Story\u003cbr\u003e Field Note on Gaston Bachelard’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eThe Poetics of Space\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Unusual Art of Living Well\u003cbr\u003e How to Forgive the Predator\u003cbr\u003e After I Tell a Man I Can’\u003cbr\u003et Date Him Because of My Hidden Disability\u003cbr\u003e Hunter’\u003cbr\u003es Moon\u003cbr\u003e Nocturne\u003cbr\u003e Gestation\u003cbr\u003e America\u003cbr\u003e Borders\u003cbr\u003e Unpacking\u003cbr\u003e Preacher’\u003cbr\u003es Daughter\u003cbr\u003e My Daughter and I Gather Stones at Empire Beach\u003cbr\u003e At the Butterfly Habitat\u003cbr\u003e First Visit to the Sister Survivors Exhibit\u003cbr\u003e Spirit of the Animal\u003cbr\u003e Upon Viewing KatrÍ\u003cbr\u003en SigurdardÓ\u003cbr\u003ettir’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eMetamorphic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At a Monastic Retreat\u003cbr\u003e The Hunter\u003cbr\u003e The Book of Birds\u003cbr\u003e After My Father Tells Me He Loves the 23rd Psalm\u003cbr\u003e Field Note on Gaston Bachelard’\u003cbr\u003es \u003ci\u003eThe Poetics of Space\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e My Grandmother’\u003cbr\u003es Ashes\u003cbr\u003e The World Is Whatever We Choose to Make It\u003cbr\u003e Elegy for My Daughter Who Has Never Known a Paradise\u003cbr\u003e Civil Assault\u003cbr\u003e This Much\u003cbr\u003e Root\u003cbr\u003e They Tell Us to Live in the Moment Because the Moment Is All We May Have\u003cbr\u003e Smile Back\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"The Backwaters Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52600322392344,"sku":"9781496243706","price":13.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/wolves-in-shells-paperback-softback-9781496243706","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}