This Alaska

Alaska serves as the physical and figurative setting of Hoffman's introspective debut. Hoffman's poems reckon with family, desire, grief, and bereavement through the lens of the state's harsh coldness. As the speaker states in the opening poem, "I was so young before New York/that I believed loving myself each day/would be easier there." Later, in "Winter," she recalls the process of tending to seagulls exposed to oil, memorably stating, "because I am// youngest, because a hunter's moon/is how I locate heaven, I take the gull// down the wharf, kneel in an untouched/tract of snow, and quiet its skull with rock." Beauty and violence coexist in Hoffman's writing, drawing memorably from one another. As the poem "Overnight" asks, "Who are we if not images/that betray us? The street is quiet.// Snow begins in the leaves." This is an enjoyably atmospheric debut. (Sept.)