Our Natural Satellite
Harvard Square Press, 2022
Winner of the 2021 International 3-Day Poetry Chapbook Contest
"There is so much to admire in this short manuscript, which manages to travel many places as it wrestles with location and dislocation and as it probes not just the odd and complex history of space exploration but also the ordinary experiences of living on earth in the age of such travel. These poems are supple and complex, honest and tender. They acknowledge the complexity of what we know, what we don’t know, what we remember, and what we imagine. Moving from a crater in Wisconsin blacktop to a childhood garden to a 'single, pleading yelp' of a dog in Russia, this strong collection forms a sustained meditation on our relationship with the moon."
-Cindy Hunter Morgan, author of Harborless
Russell Brakefield is the author of Field Recordings (Wayne State University Press), My Modest Blindness (Autofocus Books) and Irregular Heartbeats at the Park West (Wayne State University Press). He is the winner of the 2021 International 3-Day Chapbook Contest for his book Our Natural Satellite (Harvard Square Press). His writing has appeared in the Indiana Review, New Orleans Review, Poet Lore, Crab Orchard Review, HAD, and elsewhere. He received his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He has received fellowships from the University of Michigan Musical Society, the Vermont Studio Center, and the National Parks Department. He is Assistant Professor in the University Writing Program at the University of Denver.
