Summer of the Oystercatchers: Poems

Written by a third-culture kid who grew up in the Middle East and relocated to Texas as a teenager, Summer of the Oystercatchers is a wide-ranging collection of poems that grapple with global interconnection, hilarious and cringe-worthy stories from a cross-cultural childhood, the bruising fingerprints of fundamentalist Christianity and Islam, the many joys of the heart's slow softening, and the many griefs of insurmountable distances. In a voice sometimes personal and sometimes planetary, this book speaks to the historic and contemporary suppression of women's experiences and the roles religion and tradition have played in perpetuating those norms. From puffins to pigeons and Hamlet to Monticello, the book leans heavily into history, literature, and the natural world for a crisp commentary on the troubles and promise of our own times, and ultimately to tell a story of faith expanding beyond the borders set for it.