Rachel Custer's new book, Flatback Sally Country (Terrapin Books) is a "hard-hitting and harrowing and almost hypnotically beautiful" look at Middle America. Custer is also the author of The Temple She Became (Five Oaks Press, 2017). She is the recipient of a 2019 fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and a 2015 mentorship from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Rattle, OSU: The Journal, B O D Y, The American Journal of Poetry, The Antigonish Review, and Open: Journal of Arts & Letters. She attended the University of Indiana and the University of Chicago. She lives in Indiana.

Find the new book here:

https://www.terrapinbooks.com/rachel-custer.html

In the second hour, Jennifer Jean returns to share a few poems from her new book, Voz. Find more here:

https://www.jenniferjeanwriter.com/books.html

As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem in the voice of one of your ancestors. Use formal verse of some kind.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Personify a place where you’ve lived as if it were a character sketch of a real person.

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