{"product_id":"midden-paperback","title":"Midden - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJulia Bouwsma\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAfaa M. Weaver\u003c\/b\u003e (Foreword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE MAINE LITERARY AWARD FOR POETRY \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFINALIST FOR THE JULIE SUK AWARD \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSELECTED AS ONE OF NPR'S 2018 GREAT READS \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF BOOK RIOT'S 50 MUST READ POETRY COLLECTIONS OF 2019 \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1912 the State of Maine forcibly evicted an interracial community of roughly forty-five people from Malaga Island, a small island off the coast of Phippsburg, Maine. Though Malaga had been their home for generations, nine residents (including the entire Marks family) were committed to the Maine School for the Feeble Minded in Pownal, Maine. The others struggled to find homes on other islands or on the mainland, where they were often unwelcome. The Malaga school was dismantled and rebuilt as a chapel on another island. Seventeen graves were exhumed from the Malaga cemetery, consolidated into five caskets, and reburied at the Maine School for the Feeble Minded. Just one year after the start of the eviction proceedings, the Malaga community was erased. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eMidden \u003c\/i\u003econfronts the events and over one hundred years of silence that surround this shameful incident in Maine's history. Utilizing a wide range of poetic styles--epistolary poems to ghosts, persona poems, erasure poems, interior poems, interviews and instructions, poems framed both in the past and in the present--\u003ci\u003eMidden\u003c\/i\u003e delves into the vital connections between land, identity, and narrative and asks how we can heal the generations and legacies of damage that result when all three of these are deliberately taken in an attempt to rob people of their very humanity. The book is a poetic excavation of loss, a carving of the landscape of memory, and a reckoning with and tribute to the ghosts we carry and step over, often without our even knowing it.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJulia Bouwsma\u003c\/b\u003e is Maine's Poet Laureate (2021-2026) and is the author of \u003ci\u003eWork by Bloodlight \u003c\/i\u003e(Cider Press Review, 2017).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 96\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.4 x 8.9 x 8 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 04, 2018\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42689865089087,"sku":"9780823280988","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/e84449f2b6eb28713ca0a120e57fd374_b7f9c7bb-ed1b-489b-a987-566ecc214b82.webp?v=1764986961","url":"https:\/\/dhl-adrianne.myshopify.com\/products\/midden-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}