From the early hours of the morning to the eerie stillness before a storm, RD Morgan’s poetry exists in unsettling interstitial spaces. Meditations on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South between Eras of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation is searing, gritty, and relentless, and it explores identity and isolation through a feminist lens within the landscape of the American South. The title’s reference to Ross McElwee’s 1986 documentary Sherman’s March is mostly tongue-in-cheek, and plenty of humor and irony glints through the debris of broken relationships, dead-end jobs, budget cars, and lost homes. The book summons such disparate figures as Zora Neale Hurston, James Joyce, Erica Jong, Axl Rose, jellyfish, alligators, pelicans, clams, and Okavango lions. The biosphere of this book is diverse, and its language is an adventure.

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RD Morgan lives in Southern California with her young daughter, and they both appreciate art, sharks, and sea urchins. Much of RD’s poetry draws inspiration from the decades she spent in the American South. Her first collection of poetry, Meditations on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South between Eras of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation, was published by Match Factory Editions, and she serves as an editor there. Her work has appeared in journals such as Third Coast and The Packingtown Review. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and works as a web marketer for a national nonprofit organization.