From The Seattle Times April 1, 2022
by Sarah Neilson
Please see the full article, with six recommendations here. Below, we share Neilson’s recommendation for Bellingham, WA’s own Caitlin Scarano.
“The Necessity of Wildfire: Poems”
by Caitlin Scarano (Blair, $16.95; out April 5)
This second full-length collection from Scarano, who is based in Bellingham, was selected for the Wren Poetry Prize by Ada Limón. While Scarano was raised in the South, their art and aesthetics are shaped by the Pacific Northwest. In these poems, they explore legacies of violence in families and land, the complexity of sexuality, and the idea of mercy for the living and the dead. This is a good one to read for a feeling of catharsis and awe at the intertwined nature of beauty and pain.