Blueprint and Ruin - by Bethany Schultz Hurst (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2021 Michael Waters Poetry Prize

Grappling with both motherhood and the death of a mother, Blueprint and Ruin explores the juxtaposition of prosperity and loss. Filled with cultural specters manifested in structural ruin--houses built on snake dens, malls with foundations in old landfills, a picture-perfect town designed to be eradicated in nuclear testing--the poems mine what's buried beneath the façade of the American West.

About the Author

Bethany Schultz Hurst's first book, Miss Lost Nation, was selected by Richard Blanco for the Anhinga Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Her work was selected for Best American Poetry 2015 and has appeared in journals such as Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, Narrative, New Ohio Review, and Poetry Northwest. A recipient of a Literary Arts Fellowship through the Idaho Commission on the Arts, Hurst holds an MFA from Eastern Washington University and is currently a professor at Idaho State University.