Stairway to Heaven

A new collection from a poet who “writes with scrupulous and merciful passion about every kind of relatedness—family, place, politics, and wildlife” (W. S. Piero)

In her fifth book of poems, Stairway to Heaven, Alison Hawthorne Deming explores dimensions of grief and renewal after losing her brother and mother. Grounded in her communion with nature and place, she finds even in Death Valley, that most stark of landscapes, a spirit of inventiveness that animates the ground we walk on. From the cave art of Chauvet to the futuristic habitat of Biosphere 2, that inventiveness becomes consolation for losses in family and nature, a means to build again a sense of self and world in the face of devastating loss.

Alison Hawthorne Deming is the author of four collections of poetry, includingScience and Other Poems (winner of the Walt Whitman Award) and Rope. Her works of nonfiction includeThe Edges of the Civilized World (a finalist for the PEN Center USA/West Award) andZoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit. The recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, she is a professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona and lives in Tucson.