Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Cornerstone Press, University of Wisconsin

Publication date: January 26, 2027

To preorder, call (715-346-4532) or email ( cornerstone.press@uwsp.edu )

“…a vivid and deeply touching threnody to the natural world, a lament of maternal concern and environmental alarm, passionate and embracing, with a guide who morphs in and out of a remarkable other called Hildegard–like Virgil and Dante, perhaps–finding consolation if not resolution in being both Earth’s mothers and her children.” – Dan Gerber, author of The End of Michelangelo
“Woe to the men of letters, woe to fishermen parsing currents in waders–from first long gush to final wake, the poems of Alison Swan’s unmastered River Mouth are fit to burst the dam and sweep us into the sea.  These are enchantments in the most ancient and binding sense, naming songs that slow and repair our attention. Here the mother tongue is a muscle, “mammalian and plain,” but never tame. “My needs are boundless,” scribes Swan, and the distinction between self and myth, between city and eddy, between water and daughter muddies, then clears: what we have witnessed is already gone or soon to disappear. Here are the taut and urgent poems of a mature poet and attendant animist documenting the levy’s break. To this narrow shore, this washed out bank, lay your ear.” – Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, author of Boys Behind Glass
“The only thing as magic as the place where land and water meet the Great Lakes is Alison Swan’s description of it.  Through her eyes we see this place in a reverential way.  This is a beautifully rendered, profoundly moving tour de force. This is a beautifully rendered, profoundly moving tour de force.” – Dave Dempsey, author of Great Lakes for Sale
“The remarkable nature of these poems is their quiet presence within earshot of water, wing and wildness, no matter the location. Swan’s poems prepare us for an imperiled future, but allow us to live fully in our present, however flawed and uncertain. This gift to the reader rests in both the poet’s watchfulness, but also in her understanding of how humans fit into the ecosphere which is our earth and sea. The poet talks to trees, birds and deer as if they will answer. Acknowledges what she does and does not know. Understands that she might need to carry wildness inside her.  – Ellen Stone, author of Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them