Rough Cradle

by Betsy Sholl

Betsy Sholl’s masterful, musical seventh collection focuses on human dichotomies: body and soul, mystery and knowledge, grief and ecstasy. Though the self is small in relation to death, love is enormous, and no life too small or mean to matter.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2009

About the author

Betsy Sholl has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Rough Cradle (Alice James Books, 2009). Don't Explain won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and her book The Red Line won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. Her chapbooks include Pick A Card, winner of the Maine Chapbook Competition in 1991, and Betsy Sholl: Greatest Hits, 1974-2004, Pudding House Publications. She was a founding member of Alice James Books and published three collections with them: Changing Faces, Appalachian Winter and Rooms Overhead. Among her awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and two Maine Writer's Fellowships. Her work has been included in several anthologies, including Letters to America, Contemporary American Poetry on Race, and a range of magazines, including Field, Triquarterly, Brilliant Corners, The Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, Beloit Poetry Journal. She has been a visiting poet at the University of Pittsburgh and Bucknell University. She lives in Portland, Maine, and teaches at the University of Southern Maine and in the MFA Program of Vermont College.

As of March 1, 2006, Betsy Sholl was chosen to be the Poet Laureate of Maine, a five-year position named by the governor.

Reviews

[Robin McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved Betsy Sholl's work a long time, but have actually read very little of it. Rough Cradle was an opportunity to welcome more of her work into my world, and I'm so glad I did.

Sholl explores nature, grief, race, parental relationships, art, and more in this collection. She has a way with the end of a poem that leaves me breathless, and her work is both accessible and full of images that make the reader work a little. Completely satisfying.

Loved, especially, her poems "Sparrow Farming," "Bird Watching," and "Twentieth Century Limited."

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely in love with this one.

Spiritual and yet completely "human" if you want to call it that.

Such a darkness and yet it is tempered with such beauty.

I want to say so much about this book, but it is hard for me to categorize - to break into review soundbytes. Some of the best poetry I have read in awhile - heartfelt and heartbreaking yet intellectual as well. Beautiful rhythms and wordplay while also feeling effortlessly written. This is a pure poetry. I cannot wait to read more by this poet.

[Molly Brodak · Rating 2 out of 5]

a very competently-written book of poetry, but nothing special about it.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the variety of styles and themes from this Maine poet.

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets. I was fortunate enough to have her as a teacher at USM!