When I Got Drunk with My Mother

"A writer should strive to be a person on whom nothing is lost." So said Henry James. Shelley Townsend-Hudson's wonderful collection of poetry, When I Got Drunk with My Mother, surely bears out James's dictum. Her book vividly records the ordinary images and moments of her family's life-including her own journey from childhood through girlhood to womanhood-and illuminates them transcendently with a true poet's gift. Indeed, "Pinning down the sum of who we were" is her art.

-Arnold Johnston, author of Swept Away and Where We're Going, Where We've Been

Shelley Townsend-Hudson's luminous collection, When I Got Drunk with My Mother, gorgeously evokes her Southern upbringing with richness and nuance, tenderness and humor. Beautifully composed, the poems evince an unflinching commitment to depicting the poet and her family, particularly her parents, with both honesty and grace. I relished my time in the shadow of Hibriten Mountain, and I'm so pleased that, with this volume, I can return again and again-and invite other readers to join me there.

-Jennifer Holberg, professor of English, Calvin University; codirector of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing