Ash Kemp

“Spoiler Alert I just read ahead to the last page of your life and it turns out that you were always worthy of love and hope and surpassing kindness.”
― Jarod K. Anderson, Field Guide to the Haunted Forest

“But even as I proselytized to my bewildered family, even as I wore a sterling silver Jesus fish on my finger like an engagement ring, even as I listened to DC Talk and Jars of Clay, even as I prayed each night, I’m not sure I ever really believed. In a small town, the promises of religion are the language of protection, and I was being promised unconditional love—just as my body, and my very existence as a girl, had begun to betray me. Just as my desires had begun to consume me. Just as I was being taught to believe those desires were wrong, that they would mark me irreparably as both sinner and slut.”
― Melissa Faliveno, Tomboyland: Essays

“You may feel separated from the natural world, but just look at what you are. Look at how you live. You are not born to this place. You are born of this place.”
― Jarod K. Anderson, Field Guide to the Haunted Forest

“These sounds belong to the same unfinished poem as you and your fistful of years like copper coins.
It wouldn’t be poetry without you.”
― Jarod K. Anderson, Field Guide to the Haunted Forest