Little Knives Paperback – February 24, 2026

In Little Knives, Dara-Lyn Shrager cultivates a voice that is at once powerful and vulnerable. These poems are precise, imaginative, and profoundly candid, braiding together the speaker’s many lives — from the “milk carton heart” of childhood, to the necessary devotion of young motherhood, to the isolation of caring for adult children and aging parents. Through seasons and decades, across countries, this speaker remains constant: sincere, uncompromising, keenly aware of the broken world — yet determined to find beauty in “all the little knives.”—Rachel Marie Patterson, author, Tall Grass with Violence and Co-Editor, Radar PoetryIn Little Knives, Dara-Lyn Shrager cuts through the tender membrane between motherhood’s fierce devotion and its inevitable surrender. From 1970s Pennsylvania to sun-scorched California, these poems trace the body’s vulnerabilities: a niece’s stuttering heart, sons who drift beyond reach, childhood’s carnival cruelties. With unflinching honesty and startling imagery, Shrager maps a geography of survival, small cuts, and love’s stubborn persistence. This is a book to keep close to the skin.—Charlotte Pence, author, Code and Many Small FiresDara-Lyn Shrager’s latest collection concerns itself with the minute: purse straps and baby food jars, pin cushion cacti and Dixie cups, a child’s vena cava, and a single letter of the alphabet texted from afar. I am in awe of the grace and compression here, of the compassion that Shrager is able to cultivate in so few lines. Pointed, sharp, and gleaming — indeed, these poems are Little Knives.—Nicole Callihan, author, This Strange Garmentand SLIP Read more