Long Coordinates

?Christina de Villier?s Long Coordinates is an old-time book of mountain tunes, of blues, of songs sung by a soul deeply enmeshed in place and trying to reckon love and all its complications. The language here is keen-edged and playful, breathtaking at times, and de Villier?s sharp, even gaze lights in one moment on ?rare pears? and ?the golden mare drink[ing] / from a trough,? then ?styrofoam & leafblowers & greed & sports / utility vehicles & traps & rape & drones? the next. Long Coordinates is an extraordinary debut. As the poet writes, ?I?m mad for it // whole person mouth wide open.???Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die and Thieve