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Book Title

The Natural Order of Things

Subtitle
Poems
Author 1
Donika Kelly
Poem Excerpt
Observe the baby hippo,
early born in hay over concrete,
stumbling and new in its enclosure:
 
Taut skin and fat and awkward steps—
it stumbles under a fluorescent sun
and nearly into the white walls.
 
Hippo baby, little river horse,
you should be in a river.

O Donika, you should be in love.
 
—from “A Poem to Remind Myself of the Natural Order of Things”
Body
What does a life look like on the other side of survival, and can the one who survived come to recognize that she did?
 
Donika Kelly’s poetry is known for its resonant, unflinching confrontations with trauma and inheritance, translated through myth and nature. The Natural Order of Things expands these explorations into a new realm: one defined by joy and connection. It is an ode to companionship with people, animals, and our planet, and reveals the reparative power of intimacy. In poems inventive, playful, and formally nimble, Kelly pays homage to the voices and people she comes from, the songs of her lineage. Other poems follow the early stirrings of love to erotic transcendence with the lover and the self. Throughout, Kelly finds mirror and marvel in nature, art, and precious friendships. Though it once seemed impossible, she realizes a surprising place for herself, a rightness in the larger world.
 
The Natural Order of Things is a brilliant and moving book, one that reaches toward equilibrium and something like happiness.

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List Price
$17.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-64445-359-9
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
88
Trim Size
Trim Size
6 x 9
Keynote
An extraordinary and unexpected book of finding happiness, by the award-winning author of The Renunciations

About the Author

Donika  Kelly
Credit: Ladan Osman
Donika Kelly is the author of Bestiary, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield Wolf Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

http://donikakelly.com/
More by author

Upcoming Events

Donika Kelly reading and in conversation about THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Jennifer Espinoza at Skylight Books

Date:
Location:
Skylight Books in Los Angeles, CAview map
This event is free and open to the public. Click here for more details

Donika Kelly reading from THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Gary Hunter, Doris Reed, Steven Reigns, Sweet Baby J'ai, and Lorenzo Taylor at the Pride of the Page festival

Date:
ET
Location:
Palm Springs Cultural Center in Palm Springs, CAview map

This festival is free and open to the public. Find more information and RSVP here.

Donika Kelly & Melissa Febos in conversation with Meredith Maran at the Pride on the Page festival

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Location:
Palm Springs Cultural Center in Palm Springs, CAview map

This festival is free and open to the public. Find more information and RSVP here.

Donika Kelly in conversation about THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Tiana Clark at the Texas Book Festival, co-presented by Torch Literary Arts

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Location:
Texas Book Festival in Austin, TXview map

This festival is free and open to the public. Find more information here.

Donika Kelly reading and in conversation about THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Cecily Parks at the Texas Book Festival

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Location:
Texas Book Festival in Austin, TXview map

This festival is free and open to the public. Find more information here.

Donika Kelly reading from THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Melissa Febos at The Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House

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Location:
Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House in New York, NYview map

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP is required. RSVP and find more information here.

Donika Kelly (THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS) reading and in conversation with Melissa Febos at NYU's Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House

Date:
Location:
Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House in New York, NYview map
This event is free and open to the public but all attendees are required to RSVP. Click here for more details and to RSVP. Book sales hosted by McNally Jackson. 

Donika Kelly (THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS) reading and in conversation with Melissa Febos at Sarah Lawrence College

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Location:
Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NYview map

Stay tuned for more information.

Donika Kelly reading from THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS with Marie Howe, Ama Codjoe, Ladan Osman, and Melissa Febos at P&T Knitwear

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Location:
P&T Knitwear Books and Podcasts in New York, NYview map

Praise

  • “With two revelatory collections famous for their cohesion in both content and form, Kelly seeks out a more profound wholeness in her marvelous third. Poems respond to performances, exhibitions, and workshops, feeling collaborative and born of pleasure and challenge.”Poetry Northwest

  • “There’s bravery and relief in leaving behind what no longer serves us—something I’ve been thinking a lot about in my own life—and Kelly’s poems reclaim and reframe her history into a restorative and generative present.”—Mandana Chaffa, The Brooklyn Rail

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