Rebecca Lilly calls these prose poems because they are written more in paragraphs than stanzas and conform to no known poetic structures. Yet, the wording is not at all prosaic. The poems are expressed poetically and answer to no restraints of place, which can be fantastical, or time, which can be indeterminant, or even states of life and death. The creatures among us are unlimited and even include our alternative selves. “Creatures Among Us turns loose the daredevil imagination and atmospheric chills I’ve always hoped for in poetry but rarely encounter. . . . Rebecca Lilly’s splendid collection will hold readers spellbound.” Matt Schmacher. “You have not read anything quite like these poems, which carry the reader away on a voyage of surprise and wonder, and you will never forget them.” Robert Morgan. “A dizzying journey through otherworldly realms with a shape-shifting narrator at the helm. Through dream sequences and fantastical characters, Rebecca Lilly explores timely topics in the age of social media: the identities we assign ourselves, and the fear of losing authentic connections with others.” – Ann James. Rebecca Lilly grew up in rural Albemarle County, Virginia, and still lives there, in the foothills just east of the crest of the Blue Ridge. She works as an assistant to a landscape architect, and as her own photographer and writer. She earned an undergraduate degree at Cornell and a PhD at Princeton.
Frankfort, Kentucky: Broadstone Books, 2019. 86 pages. Trade paperback.