Blood Harmony by Lana Austin

Iris Press does such a fine job lifting up previously “undiscovered” writers as well as celebrating established icons, like Ron Rash. Their covers belong in an art gallery. This collection is exemplary of the fine job they do. The title of this collection comes from the poet’s experience singing with her brother in foster care in rural Kentucky. Music – of a broad swath of genres -  is what binds all these poems together. “Blood Harmony introduces a lively new voice to Appalachian poetry. Lana K. W. Austin celebrates the bonds of memory and blood in poems of both harmony and drama, remembering the blood spilled in the coalfields, and the struggles of families with loyalty and courage. The poems pay tribute to the place and soul of the region, the music of blending voices, adolescent desire, and the exuberance of motherhood, the enduring legacy of Jean Ritchie and Bill Monroe, and the mountains where the music was born.” --Robert Morgan. “An ecclesiastical thread runs through this fine