Sharan Strange's poetry brings to life the lush mysteries and brutalities of growing up in a rural Southern town. At once a portrait of a community and the poet, Ash traces that alchemy by which the life stories of those around us are transmuted into our own. "Ash embodies a voice we can count on, informed by the grace and wit of the South. Sharan Strange has wrested these poignant poems out of experience and imagination, and they sizzle with a deep knowing. Family and neighborhood are unique and universal. We know these people and places through a painful and joyful directness-everything...