The Natural Order of Things
Poems
$34.68
- Paperback
72 pages
- Release Date
14 October 2025
Summary
What does a life look like on the other side of survival, and can the one who survived come to recognize that she did?
Donika Kelly’s poetry is known for its resonant, unflinching confrontations with trauma and inheritance, translated through myth and nature. The Natural Order of Things expands these explorations into a new realm: one defined by joy and connection. It is an ode to companionship with people, animals, and our planet, and reveals the reparative power of intimacy…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781644453599 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1644453592 |
| Author: | Donika Kelly |
| Publisher: | Graywolf Press,U.S. |
| Imprint: | Graywolf Press,U.S. |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 72 |
| Release Date: | 14 October 2025 |
| Weight: | 146g |
| Dimensions: | 12mm x 228mm x 154mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
“The Natural Order of Things has a simple premise: that we are put here to love… . Donika Kelly sings this love to us in languages–from her family’s Southern vernacular to the ecstatic compression of the sonnet–that close the distance between grief and joy.”–Evie Shockley
“There’s bravery and relief in leaving behind what no longer serves us–something I’ve been thinking a lot about in my own life–and Kelly’s poems reclaim and reframe her history into a restorative and generative present.”–Mandana Chaffa, The Brooklyn Rail
“Kelly’s inquisitive, lyrical poems contemplate the phenomenon of connection: between lovers; between human, animal, earth, and cosmos; between past and present.”–The New Yorker
“Like the emerald cicada that adorns the cover, buried for years in the earth, Kelly’s poems emerge with a deep desire to sing. And sing they do, of family, of trauma, of the hearsay of history, and of the weight of white supremacy and American empire. Through it all, these poems sing of love and all the awkward joy, contentment, and bewilderment it entails.”–Kurt Milberger, The Headlight Review
About The Author
Donika Kelly
Donika Kelly is the author of Bestiary, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield Wolf Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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