Not Quite on Grand Avenue: Poems of the Early Years by Kim McNealy Sosin

Kim Sosin’s poems look through the mist of memory to evoke the life of “all the girls she’s been,” from the danger of being a pretend wild horse on a red gravel road to the deep joy of her 10-year-old self on her spotted pony riding the plains. She takes us to secret places, through a blizzard, from golden sunsets to the blue hours to the darkness as she explores family and the meanings of love. Like the daughter peering into an old hardware store to discover the ghost of a father dancing with a broom, these tenderly nuanced poems rub away the dust to look into the mysteries and truths of the lost times.

–Meg Files, author of The Beasts

Not Quite on Grand Avenue is a rekindling of days gone by that are not quite bygones yet. In it, Kim McNealy Sosin deftly captures the spirit of a young girl as she navigates the highs and lows of childhood in a rural town. Whether on her horse, a bike, or driving with her brother on “Minimum Maintenance Roads,” many of these poems sing of freedom, but the heart of this collection resides in family ties. Each section of the book chronicles the story of a family torn apart by an “unspeakable” wrong that can only be sewn back together through devotion and the passage of time. These poems invite their reader to witness poignant moments of Sosin’s early life and the result is a collection that is honest, heartfelt, and deeply moving.

–Shyla Shehan, author of Mining the Gap