settler

by Maggie Queeney

"settler began haunting me while I was reading it for the first time, so that as soon as I finished it I wanted to read it over again. Maggie Queeney has captured so much human experience in such a small space—and in that small space, in even smaller spaces, sonnet by sonnet—and my admiration for the book, in particular for its taut clarity, from which its power to haunt derives, only increases each time I read it." —Shane McCrae, Judge's Citation for the 2017 Baltic Writing Residency Poetry Chapbook Contest

Genres: Poetry

30 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2021

Reviews

[amanda abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This chapbook is full of ethereal and visceral imagery, poems which meld together and catch the reader in a wondrous spider web of words. They are gorgeous, though I have little sense of them as distinct pieces. They accrue into an overwhelming and beautiful account of loss and wonder.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve had the opportunity to study under Maggie as part of the Forms and Features workshops conducted remotely that she leads through The Poetry Foundation. She’s a wonderful facilitator and, and I learned through reading, an equally skilled poet. settler is a tight collection with lyrical phrases and thought-provoking line breaks.

[Amanda Karch · Rating 4 out of 5]

“In revenant gestures, we piece the collective
Shroud, bridge our movements to cover
The ones left to touch and not remember”

The volta of Maggie Queeney’s “Quilt” echoes the recurring sentiments strewn throughout her chapbook of sonnets, settler. Here reads an elegy for those who have fallen victim to the vulnerability and perils of being a woman in a man’s world. Here reads a love poem for survival, for the women who endure and persist through their trials called life, for the similarities and complexities woven into each day of living. Split into three sections equal in length and precise language, settler uses the third person plural to encapsulate the collective stories passed through generations. In fact, Queeney opens her first poem, “Female,” with “we,” instantly solidifying the connection we as women inherently hold. This is more than a story of female settlers on the trail, centuries removed from now — this is a cry for reclamation of self and strength despite the sorrows we still face daily.