Removal Acts
Drawing its title from the 1863 Federal Act that banished the Dakota people from their homelands, this debut collection reckons with the present-day repercussions of historical violence.
"By compiling absences, silences, and censures, Lynch exposes the colossal scale of settler violence on the American continent. She wields punctuation marks—brackets, arrows, and spaces—like weapons."—Janani Ambikapathy, Harriet
“…a deeply personal, formally inventive investigation into history, ancestry, and loss […] Throughout the work, Lynch’s language remains precise, compassionate, inquisitive, and vulnerable.” —Mathangi Subramanian, BOMB
“In this sharp debut, […] Lynch deconstructs a violent past and present, while allowing herself and the reader to search for paths toward an as-yet unknown future.” —Dasia Moore, The Boston Globe
“Through Lynch’s beautiful poems, she shines a much-needed light on the very real yet complicated connection between our own suffering and that of the bodies we came from that came before us. She gives voice to our own potential healing, and perhaps with it, in some form, that of our lineage as well.” —Amber Tamblyn, Bust
“A remarkable book about archival violence, family legacies, whiteness, erasure, American mythology, personal transformation, and so much more.” —Laura Sackton, Book Riot
“Erin Marie Lynch has written a stunning debut that transcends the genre-expectations of a “first book” to offer something more erudite, ambitious, and virtuosic in scope. As a collection, it possesses the emotional, formal, and intellectual maturity of a poet working at the height of her craft.” —James Ciano, The Adroit Journal