“This is a gripping, timely, and important examination of American racism, and Phillips tells it with rare clarity and power.” — Publishers Weekly (starred)

From W. W. Norton: Blood at the Root is a sweeping American tale that spans the Cherokee removals of the 1830s, the hope and promise of Reconstruction, and the crushing injustice of Forsyth County, Georgia’s racial cleansing. With bold storytelling and lyrical prose, Phillips breaks a century-long silence and uncovers a history of racial terrorism that continues to shape America in the twenty-first century.

Patrick Phillips, longtime NER poet and translator, appeared most recently in NER 33.2. He  is an award-winning poet, translator, and professor, and a Guggenheim and NEA Fellow. His most recent book, Elegy for a Broken Machine, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Blood at the Root can be purchased through W.W. Norton and independent booksellers.

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“Anne Raeff’s exquisite stories are remarkable for their combination of intimacy and reverence for the mysteries and private griefs her characters fold their lives around . . . The Jungle around Us is a haunting and breathtakingly beautiful book.” —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

From the publisher: While struggling with fear, danger, and displacement, the characters of The Jungle around Us form strange and powerful bonds in distant and unlikely places. A family that has escaped Vienna ends up on the edge of the Amazon, where the parents fight yellow fever and the daughter falls in love with a village boy. Two sisters learn lessons about race and war during the Columbia University riots of 1968. A young girl confronts death when her former babysitter is mysteriously murdered. Raeff’s stories are about embracing the world though the world contains everything we fear.

Anne Raeff is a high school teacher at East Palo Alto Academy, where she teaches English and history. Her stories and essays have appeared in  ZYZZYVA and Guernica, among others. Her first novel is Clara Mondschein’s Melancholia. Her collection The Jungle Around Us is the winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in NER, most recently in 37.2. The Jungle Around Us can be purchased from University of Georgia Press and independent booksellers.