Anara Guard
kansas, reimagined: poems
Kansas, Reimagined took at its starting point the fact that L. Frank Baum only visited the state once, declaring it the worst place he’d ever been. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz he described Kansas as completely gray: prairie, house, Uncle Henry, clothing. In this new collection of deceptively simple persona poems, the poet gives voice to familiar characters (Toto, Dorothy, Em…) and to unexpected entities (corn, sunflowers, cows…)
Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, said, “These poems remind of the images we used to see in my childhood in the…Viewmaster…a sense of three-dimensionality, of actuality, beyond what one can get in a flat photo, leaps up…the world of Kansas (and of Oz) does come filling in with a heavy, gravitational physicality.”
Available from The Poetry Box.
like a complete unknown: a novel
A compelling and evocative portrait that speaks to our own complex social times.
Honorable Mention, Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year for 2022
Eric Hoffer Award finalist.
Indie California collection.
PLAYLIST available here.
Guard brings these seemingly disparate characters together to explore friendship, with a satisfying redemption arc that makes the story unforgettable.—Kenyon Bulletin
Lyrical and self-aware—San Francisco Book Review
Speaks intimately of our own complex social moment—Mary Volmer, author of Reliance, Illinois
Fantastic page-turner that broke my heart and mended it—Readers’ Favorites
Deeply felt, intimately and powerfully inhabited story—Ronne Hartfield, author of Another Way Home
Remarkable story of persistence, self-discovery and redemption—Marcia Butler, author of Oslo, Maine
Fast-paced novel with touches of the poetic—Hungry for Good Books
An engaging novel about second chances—Foreword Reviews
Vivid, thought-provoking—Midwest Book Review
