The Return of the Native

Poetry. THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE is both a pastoral and its counterpoint. A series of 23 poems, it enacts a struggle between the romance of recorded history and the social conditions of the global present. Topical threads include New England colonial, American folk, and Native American history; the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts; and the specious gloss of American "road" culture, all filtered through a fine mesh of Thomas Hardy.

Kate Colby is the author of UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR (2008) and THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (2011), both from Ugly Duckling Presse. Her first title, FRUITLANDS, was selected by Rosmarie Waldrop for a Norma Farber First Book Award in 2007 and published by Litmus Press. Also from Litmus is BEAUPORT (2010). Chapbooks include Rock of Ages (Anadama Press) and A Banner Year (Belladonna), and recent journal publications include NEW AMERICAN WRITING, VANITAS, NO: A JOURNAL OF THE ARTS, EOAGH and Little Red Leaves. She grew up in Massachusetts, interloped in California, and now lives in Providence, RI, where she works as a teacher and copywriter.