The Church in the Plains

"The Church in the Plains" tells the story of a German Lutheran farming community whose members immigrated to Ohio in the 1830s. These poems focus on the community's relationship with the church and the land--the expanse of plains, formerly wetlands, drained and cultivated by forefathers--and how that relationship has changed since the 19th century. Farmers have always had a fraught relationship with development. It provided them with tractors and drainage tiles to farm the rich flood-plain soil, yet also gave rise to a burgeoning urban population, which oozes at a troubling pace toward family farms. This collection attempts both to commemorate the history of an ancestral home and to cope with encroaching modernity and development. Where, for instance, do a grandmother's memories go when they bulldoze her childhood home to make way for another pre-fab neighborhood? How does this community continue to exist even as the church languishes?

Rachel Rinehart grew up in Chuckery, Ohio, and teaches at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Her poems have appeared in journals including Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal and Colorado Review. This is her first poetry collection.AUTHOR HOME:Huntington, WV