Dear Memphis

by Rachel Edelman

Dear Memphis is a collection of poems addressed to Memphis, Tennessee, the city where the poet grew up, and explore essential questions of belonging, identity, and generational legacies for a Jewish family living in the American South. “What do I know about exile?” one poem’s speaker asks, and by the end of this book the reader will know plenty. These poems sing with their attention to the particular body and what it cannot carry, what it cannot put down. Through letters, city documents, visual art, and dialogue, Dear Memphis excavates ancestry, inheritance, and the ecological possibility of imagining a future.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

Published January 23, 2024

Reviews

[Burgi Zenhaeusern · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems of Dear Memphis focus on reflection and remembrance--an inward echoing through time--to invoke the place that gave rise to them, to actualize it and let it resonate with history. They do so with few and poignant brushstrokes, the brilliant use of double meaning, and different poetic forms. Possible stories emerge from vivid fragments and images, attaching their threads near and far. Through it all, the epistolary sequence, which gives the collection its title, makes a beautiful weave. I love these poems' deepfelt thinking, their tenderness, and music.

[Gabrielle Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible debut, full of poems that are moving, thought-provoking, and meticulously wrought. As a Southerner, I especially appreciate this book's reckonings and wrestlings with the South and belonging. As a poet, I especially admire Edelman's subtle patternings of sound throughout; there is an original music to these poems, which adds even more depth to the layered arguments and experiences they offer.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel’s collection of poems is breathtaking. It will make you cry and laugh. You may not frame one of the poems and hang it on your wall, as I have, but her poetry will stay with you.

It is such a gift to have a dear friend’s poetry always at your fingertips.

She is continuing to do readings, and I was able to join one virtually. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As absolutely biased as I am toward Edelman's writing, I think this is one of the strongest debut works of poetry I've read. Pulling at strings of home & empire, femininity & spirituality, domesticity & disorder, Edelman produces a marvel of poetics toward the ache of a better future.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What do I know of exile?" the poet asks. There's a lot in here about family and diaspora and racial solidarity, but this question of heritage and inheritance, the question of what belongs to us from the received legacy of our family, is what's sticking with me from these poems.

[Amanda Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning collection. Some favorites include "After Waking", "Swatch Test", "How Prayer Works" and Nocturn. The pacing and build of the collection was perfect. Highly recommend.