i drew you from the river, by Rue LaFrance

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

All rivers, in time, lead to the sea. This sentiment is at the heart and headwaters of this collection, and serves as the guiding force along the way as it spans months, years, and a life. Mount Shasta’s headwaters flow seamlessly into the Chicago River, and the Mekong Delta branches off of the Sacramento and into the River Shannon. The poet details a relentless search for home and for the words to define it, fighting through grief and thundering currents.

i drew you from the river cuts through red dirt and dry valleys with a flood of sentiments about God, death, and rivers. The poet draws from the depths—some convergence of nature and nurture, hunger and hope, sacrament and sentiment. She navigates love and inheritance with the intimate regard of Ocean Vuong and the raw urgency of Richard Siken. These pieces were scribbled down in margins and gathered on notebook paper over the course of several years, and stitched together on long train rides and lingering airline flights. Ultimately, the poet urges the reader to follow the rivers. Ultimately, this collection promises, we all will reach the sea.

Rue LaFrance is a Vietnamese adoptee and Chicago-based Asian American poet who is often listening to the rivers and moving from place to place. Her work spans themes of diaspora, identity, inheritance and bodies of water. She has been featured in a number of literary journals and independent publications. Her work can also be found on scraps of paper in shoeboxes and scrapbooks. i drew you from the river is her first chapbook.