“Who You Grow Into is a celebration of cultivation, in all possible nuances. Richardson’s poems lead us to gather acorns, hoe the garden, can venison, and browse seed catalogs. And threading throughout these moments, they’re cultivating connections between human and nature, ancestors and descendants, past and future, death and life. The poems start with simple lines like 'We’re building an off-grid cabin' and 'I cleaned the kitchen today' and then take us out to the border between the wilds of human experience and its tended garden, where we can remember what was, care for what is now, and dream of what will be.” —Melissa Helton, author of Inertia: A Study and Hewn and Literary Arts Director at Hindman Settlement School
Who You Grow Into, by Amy Le Ann Richardson
Amy Le Ann Richardson was born and raised in Morehead, Kentucky, and holds an MFA from Spalding University. Amy works for Community Farm Alliance as the Eastern Kentucky Food System Resiliency Coordinator. She is a farmer, writer, visual artist, and teacher and has received grants and fellowships from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She is the author of Who You Grow Into (Finishing Line Press, 2024) and Make Believe Worlds We Built Together (Bottlecap Press, 2023), and her work has been featured in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Change Seven, and Kentucky Monthly. She lives and works on her farm in Carter County, Kentucky.