Rooted and Reduced to Dust, Ivy Raff's debut poetry collection plumbs the depths of movement, of growth: from one generation to the next, from sickness to health, from Eastern Europe across America. The poems bridge the past with today's heartbreaking tenderness, braiding bravery and vulnerability.
"These poems are alive," writes Bruce Smith, author of seven poetry collections and finalist for a Pulitzer prize and the National Book Award. In Rooted and Reduced to Dust, Smith says, Raff's work is "lacerating, honest, an inquest, finally, into the strength of love as it is conducted through the body into the poem."
Jimmy Santiago Baca, winner of the American Book Award for poetry, calls Rooted and Reduced to Dust "observant, challenging, sensuous, glowing with an undercarriage of mystique." Baca hails the reverent physicality of Raff's poems: "[They] are torsos that twist to embrace the universe. Every muscled line is taut, knowing its desire and how to hold what it loves in its arms."