Southern Messenger Poets

The poetry of Claudia Emerson is marked by a precise, evocative handling of subjects drawn from her upbringing in the rural South yet recognizable to readers across cultures: complicated family histories, the eccentricities of place, the frustrations of illness, the pleasures of language and environment. Speakers drawn from history and local settings recount narratives of loss, struggle, and perseverance. The natural world glistens with beauty and vitality. Cancer overtakes the body, producing a suspended state of existence. Everyday objects suggest universal truths and mysteries.

Ungrafted offers more than two dozen previously uncollected poems left in manuscript at the time of Emerson’s death, alongside generous selections from all her previous books. Assembled by her longtime editor Dave Smith, Ungrafted adds a final volume to the legacy of the writer described by the Richmond Times-Dispatch as “one of the most honored, decorated, and revered poets in Virginia history.”