Tall, Grass, Girl

A feminist crow at a history of violence, Tall, Grass, Girl is essential reading for those who are tired of healing narratives that ring hollow, but who also believe hope is curative.  

In this searingly honest lyrical collection, Tanis MacDonald examines living in the space between belonging and non-belonging, between victimhood and bold survivorship. She makes no apologies and pulls no punches, taking us on a journey through adoption and assault, to subsequent escapes, and eventually, into full-feathered survivor joy.

This book contends that making one’s way to tenderness can take years, that a good life can come from harsh beginnings, that feeling crazy in an impossible world is more than normal—it’s necessary. Surviving the past can be hard work, and to grow tall, to push past expectations, is to become a person who can refuse and thrive. These poems are a moving testament to remembering oneself via harsh and beautiful terrain, to transmuting past violence, and to finding one’s way back to being a tall, grassy girl self.

TANIS MACDONALD is the author of seven works of nonfiction and poetry, including Mobile which was longlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award. She is a two-time recipient of the Malahat Review’s Open Seasons Award for Nonfiction and has also won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Teaching Creative Writing. She is the co-editor of the anthology GUSH: Menstrual Manifestos for our Times (with Ariel Gordon and Rosanna Deerchild). Originally from Treaty 1 territory/Winnipeg, she now lives near O:se Kenhionhata:tie (Willow River) in the southern Ontario watershed region.

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