Andy Fogle’s Mother Countries mines the mythologies that make a life, a “watershed / of triumph lined with loss, / spotted with venom, / streaked with laughter.” In this evocative gathering of story-poems, we are lovingly guided to larger truths about gender, privilege, racism, and our own collusions in “the things we say, the things / we hear, and the things we cover up.” Fogle’s memorable lyrics sing nostalgia into honesty, despair into enlightenment.

—Marianne Worthington, author of The Girl Singer

Southerners who decide to reckon with the deeds of their ancestors take on a heavy burden. Andy Fogle begins one of these poems, looking back on a grandfather, with the phrase “I want to believe he was fair.” As we reckon with our ancestors, however, we often find that what we want to believe is not always true. Fogle’s Mother Countries shoulder the works of reckoning with courage, beauty and truth.  

—Chuck Reece, editor-in-chief, Salvation South, and founding editor, The Bitter Southerner

ORDER (November 2023):

https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/mother-countries-andy-fogle/