Wolves in Shells

by Kimberly Ann Priest

Wolves in Shells is a modern monomyth telling the story of a woman navigating homelessness, trauma, and memories as she attempts to leave a violent partner.
 

91 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2025

Reviews

[Ryleigh Spinden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the epitome of the “man vs bear” debate and why I’m picking the bear. So much of this hit home and was tragically beautiful. My favorite poem was A Pedagogy for Lesser Bodies. Check your trigger warnings, SA specifically. Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC!

[RottingInThePlot [Julia] · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is a way to say a name in the present
that changes the way you say that name in its future" -Taxonomy

This was a beautiful, cohesive collection of poetry that felt like I was sitting across from Kimberly, dumping our hearts out over a cup of coffee on [MSU] Campus. A lot of nodding, stifling of my tears, and at some point, switching to tea because I can't handle more than a cup of coffee, but the conversation wasn't done after a cup.

Wolves in Shells was rhythmic and direct in delivering Priest's lonely experience in marriage/separation/divorce, maintaining connection with her children, homelessness, and generational trauma. While also highlighting environmental injustice to not just an endangered species, but also some of the dangers Michigan's environment has been facing.

As a small town native just south of Lansing that has been incredibly homesick, Wolves in Shells came to me at the right time. To feel and taste home in someone else's words besides my own was beyond validating and rewarding, and I have endless gratitude for Priest to bare her heart in this way. Whether an endangered butterfly or wolf, surviving as a woman feels much the same in how we try to survive, with or without the love and care we need, while protecting ourselves and children.

A few absolute favorites I wanted to shout the lines of: Taxonomy, At the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Everything's Fine, Unpacking, Root, and They Tell Us to Live in the Moment Because the Moment Is All We May Have.

After reading through a few times, I can confidently say the cover is a perfect fit, and the way the work sits on the pages adds to the rhythm and overall journey I went on with Priest.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this eARC, University of Nebraska | Backwaters Press, and Kimberly Ann Priest.
I look forward to more, and admire both the emotional, social, and environmental labor you have put in!

[Kristina Hylton · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I wanted to be a boy” is a poem caught between hard and soft, sun and moon, feminine and masculine. It made my chest ache. This collection is all about a woman, cubs strapped to her side, learning how to swim through divorce. It’s about finding yourself when you least expect it.
It feels like we’re traveling cross country with the author and only a $5 bill to our name. It feels like each poem is a bullet to the chest but we’re wearing a vest. It’s just a bruise. She’ll be ok. We’re safe. We’re predators after all. We’re not empty shells anymore. We’re doing the hunting now.
These poems could all be Lana Del Rey songs and sheet music. Splendid assortment of poetry crossing many years and miles to be bound together in the now.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wolves in Shells is a collection that follows our poets as she navigates homelessness after escaping domestic violence and reckoning with the history of violence not only towards her but women in her family and out in the world. I particularly loved how the poems had their locations at the top of the page, allowing you to go on the trip with her. No collection I've ever read has had this tight and complete narrative focus. All of Priest's verses are beautiful, eloquent, and heartbreaking. There's not a poem out of place here. It will be the best poetry collection I've read in 2025 and maybe even the best one released this year. Thank you to the University of Nebraska Press for sending me a copy!

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kimberly Ann Priest's "Wolves in Shells" is a story about survival. It chronicles Priest's escape from an abusive marriage and her journey to find herself in the aftermath. It is a story of seeking home, for as Priest says: "Home/ is something to fight for until/ it's predator-free." Everyone has the right to feel safe in their home, whatever their definition of home is. "To love a home is to let it evolve/ like a body, to participate, to ask what it wants to be." "Says the Mollusk" reminds us that home is wherever we feel complete: "I don't want to go home-/ not forever, / but still/ I want to feel/ that spiraling sound/ in my body/ when you touch me." Her poem "Among the Fingernail Clams" gave me pause. Often, we think that the important things are the big, noteworthy events: the promotion, the new car. We should never lose sight of the fact that the simple things are equally as rewarding, that living quietly is nothing to be ashamed of. "--the shallows/ may not be a realm/ of power/ but here the fettered/ teem against the shoreline/ considering." Parts of the collection are deeply upsetting, as a story of survival will often be. Parts are inspiring, and a story of survival always is.