Shape Note Singing

Author: Lauren Turner

Publisher: Vegetarian Alcoholic Press (2021)

"There are many sounds in Lauren Turner's Shape Note Singing and the notes played are precise and unnamable, the questions holy and vast. Turner gives us vision; a body of work that recognizes the possibilities of listening when we relinquish control. These poems reverberate themes of deep attention and use, improvisation and devotion. Shape Note Singing throbs with the "big love" that beats and echoes through the halls inside each of us. Turner writes, "When we listen well, we amuse ourselves with what harmonies arise and cohere-" This chapbook teaches us how to stop and flow, how to locate that active listening. Lauren Turner makes more room for sound in this wildly gorgeous songbook."

 –Meg Wade