Displacement

Leslie Harrison’s collection marks the arrival of an assured new poetic voice. Chosen as the winner of the 2008 Bakeless Prize in poetry by guest judge Eavan Boland, Displacement addresses questions of place and, of course, displacement—from marriage and home—and explores the aftershocks of being uprooted physically and emotionally. Paired with Harrison’s natural, keen sense of rhythm, the central themes of impermanence and loss are heightened by the poems’ impeccable structure.

In a masterf...