Inside Spiders
Leslie Shinn

Winner of the 2013 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry

These gemlike poems, deceptively complex, are revelations of the domestic and natural worlds. Reminiscent of the writing of Robert Creely, Shinn’s debut conveys a life condensed—deeply felt and keenly observed.

“The angles may be acute, the details partial, miniature, yet Inside Spiders becomes a richly capacious portraiture, illuminating the actual yet at times transforming what it finds with further, haunted evocation. Shinn documents the domestic in its troubles, its loves, and its daily regard, lighting ‘the heart’s dark lantern.’”
—David Baker

“In Leslie Shinn’s gorgeous debut collection, what is outside of habit or home is turned brilliantly on, whether in waking to the ‘flash of a pane, dark and clean’ or encountering the ‘small, peculiar weights’ of a neighborhood grief. These poems are cut and precise and frightening.”
—Kate Northrop

Leslie Shinn received her MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. She was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and lives in Philadelphia.

Paperback / $15.95 (Can $17.95) / ISBN 978-0-89255-439-3 / 55 pages