Rosie: A Memoir of Farewell

In this luminous and unflinching memoir, acclaimed poet Tom Sleigh excavates the complex legacy of his mother Rosie — a brilliant English teacher who escaped dirt-poor Kansas through sheer intellectual force, only to struggle with the contradictions of motherhood and her own fierce independence.

From her white dog fur shroud to her final performance as she chose her own death at ninety-seven, Rosie emerges as both tender and terrifying, devoted and distant. Sleigh weaves together her own jou...