The Clearing (Milkweed Editions, 2020), winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, is the debut collection of poetry from BC English Department Associate Professor of the Practice Allison Adair. According to the publisher, The Clearing is “luminous and electric from the first line to the last. The women in these poems live in places that have been excavated for gold and precious ores, and they understand the nature of being hollowed out. From the midst of the Civil War to our current era, Adair charts fairy tales that are painfully familiar, never forgetting that violence is often accompanied by tenderness.” The Boston Globe calls The Clearing “astonishing and luminous.”