Overview

Julia C. Alter' s Some Dark Familiar begins as an excavation of the shadow sides of motherhood- often hidden from plain sight and public view. In the collection, Alter turns an unflinching eye on postpartum depression, maternal ambivalence, pregnancy termination, and the complex weaving of sexuality with motherhood. However, the author knows that no shadows are cast without light. Some Dark Familiar also seeks to illuminate the reclaiming of erotic power/true selfhood after giving birth. By the close of the collection, the book becomes a love letter from a single mother to her only son; a son being raised in America during the last gasps of the patriarchy, in the face of all of its interpersonal and ecological violence.

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Reviews

I was drawn to this book for its singular voice and remarkable tonal control. Each poem has an intensity and a sense of risk that makes the stakes immediately feel palpable and real. Some Dark Familiar is filled with poems that are hard to turn away from, and the feeling it evokes lingers long after each reading."" —Matthew Olzmann, Final Judge “Some Dark Familiar by Julia C. Alter asks ‘What’s the opposite of a mother?’ The answer is a voice that hums with all the quiet force of ‘A river with its mouth/ silted up.’ This book is a praise song, a testimony, a taxonomy of what some call transformation and others call life.” —TomÁs Q. MorÍn, author of Machete

"I was drawn to this book for its singular voice and remarkable tonal control. Each poem has an intensity and a sense of risk that makes the stakes immediately feel palpable and real. Some Dark Familiar is filled with poems that are hard to turn away from, and the feeling it evokes lingers long after each reading."" —Matthew Olzmann, Final Judge “Some Dark Familiar by Julia C. Alter asks ‘What’s the opposite of a mother?’ The answer is a voice that hums with all the quiet force of ‘A river with its mouth/ silted up.’ This book is a praise song, a testimony, a taxonomy of what some call transformation and others call life.” —TomÁs Q. MorÍn, author of Machete"

Author Information

Julia C. Alter holds an MFA in Poetry from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poetry has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and appeared widely in journals including The Southern Humanities Review,The Raleigh Review,The Santa Clara Review, The Oakland Review,Sixth Finch, Palette PoetryandPermafrost, as well asStained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation, andEcobloomspaces: Poetryat the Intersection of Identity and Place. She lives in Williston, Vermont with her son.

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