Coming Home With Shouts of Joy

On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene came barreling into the mountains of Western North Carolina. The hurricane stalled over the mountains for hours, dumping up to 30 inches of rain in some places. What followed was the worst destruction WNC has ever seen. Houses were swept away, landslides wiped out everything in their path, roads were crumbled to pieces, and trees were picked up and thrown down everywhere.

Coming Home with Shouts of Joy was Baylee Sanders's way of processing Helene and all that came after. This raw and vulnerable collection of poetry walks through Baylee's experiences during the hurricane and wrestles with questions like "Why does a good God let bad things happen?" and "Why spare some people and take others?" Whether you lived through Helene or not, this collection of poetry will tug at your heart and show you a good God in spite of all the tragedy in this world.