A feminist crow at a history of violence, Tall, Grass, Girl is essential reading for those who are tired of healing narratives that ring hollow, but who also believe hope is curative.  

In this searingly honest lyrical collection, Tanis MacDonald examines living in the space between belonging and non-belonging, between victimhood and bold survivorship. She makes no apologies and pulls no punches, taking us on a journey through adoption and assault, to subsequent escapes, and eventually, into full-feathered survivor joy.

This book contends that making one’s way to tenderness can take years, that a good life can come from harsh beginnings, that feeling crazy in an impossible world is more than normal—it’s necessary. Surviving the past can be hard work, and to grow tall, to push past expectations, is to become a person who can refuse and thrive. These poems are a moving testament to remembering oneself via harsh and beautiful terrain, to transmuting past violence, and to finding one’s way back to being a tall, grassy girl self.