{"product_id":"thunder-makes-us","title":"PRE-ORDER: thunder makes us","description":"\u003ch2\u003e\n\u003ci\u003ethunder makes us,\u003c\/i\u003e by Whitney Rio-Ross\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003ci\u003e**This is currently a PRE-ORDER title. Forthcoming Publication Date: May 26, 2026**\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe poems in \u003cem\u003ethunder makes us\u003c\/em\u003e explore heritage, faith, and womanhood in the American South. They navigate the tension of cherishing the world we’re raised in while also wrestling with the ways it can eventually harm us. In this soulful debut, Whitney Rio-Ross illustrates a woman grappling with the thorny parts of the landscape and family she’s always known, a grappling that yields a hard-fought yet enduring commitment to the work of clear-eyed love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Southern native, \u003cstrong\u003eWhitney Rio-Ross \u003c\/strong\u003eis the author of the chapbook \u003cem\u003eBirthmarks \u003c\/em\u003e(Wipf \u0026amp; Stock, 2020) and poetry editor for \u003cem\u003eFare Forward\u003c\/em\u003e. Her poems have appeared in \u003cem\u003eImage\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWhale Road Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eONLY POEMS DAILY\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAmerica Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Nashville, TN.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/3468\/0785\/files\/IMG_3878_-_Whitney_Rio-Ross.jpg?v=1776134391\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"434\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003ethunder makes us\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e“[An] effulgent, intelligent, irreverent and reverent, joyous first collection of poems. The poems are sisterly, Southern, sly, surviving a Bible belt pulled tight. We meet a gun-toting, farmer father who has a shooting target sheet in his office, a niece oblivious to a nearby mass shooting, and mothers who mumble of the rapture while their soccer player daughters ‘played \/ for the Christian league hoping to bring in \/ the kingdom on second-hand cleats.’ In her poems, religion and poetry do not cancel one another out. Rather she plants an Eden of poems where ‘it is all holy—wilderness, fire, flesh,’ where knowledge brings us together rather than pulls us apart. Her fresh talent is an anodyne for our anxious age: ‘I whisper wilderness \/ and rise in Tennessee.’ Rio-Ross makes a balm in Gilead. Her dooms and darlings delight and deliver.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Spencer Reece, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Road to Emmaus\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eActs\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e“Whitney Rio-Ross's \u003cem\u003ethunder makes us\u003c\/em\u003e braids conviction and doubt, praise and elegy in these exquisite, finely wrought poems. These poems are unflinching and yet honor ‘our involuntary reflex to protect ourselves,’ accepting that bravery and cowardice reside in the same body. Tender and steadfast, Rio-Ross’s speaker examines the mercies and burdens of family and the way gender and trauma shape us and our relationships to each other and the world. Honoring a ‘god of flamboyant frills,’ these poems know that ‘everybody is hungrier than they’ll let on.’ Let Rio-Ross’s poetry feed you. It deserves the prayer of your attention.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\" style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Amie Whittemore, author of \u003cem\u003eNest of Matches\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cem\u003ethunder makes us\u003c\/em\u003e ushers us into the intimate conversations of family myths, recipes, ghost stories, warnings and witness passed down to train a child. It deftly delves the ‘simple geometry’ of a faith and identity desperately growing despite the lies of Sunday school teachers and other elders who led and failed by example. Throughout, Whitney Rio-Ross is a master poet inviting us to reimagine the stories that shaped us, compelling us to reassess what we still carry and what we wish we could leave behind. To read her work is to be profoundly changed.”\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\" class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"x_1531962912elementToProof\" style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Matthew E. Henry, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Third Renunciation\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eDetails:\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003ePublication date: May 26, 2026\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eTrim size: 6 x 9 in\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eCheck out more Belle Point poetry \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/bellepointpress.com\/collections\/poetry\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/h2\u003e","brand":"Belle Point Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43061236105425,"sku":null,"price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/3468\/0785\/files\/00F973F7-7435-400D-B597-F9DEC6208252.jpg?v=1776113187","url":"https:\/\/bellepointpress.com\/products\/thunder-makes-us","provider":"Belle Point Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}