AFTER HOUSES is an extended meditation on homelessness. In unflinching, raw poetry, poet Claire Millikin explores states of homelessness, and a longing for, even a devotion to, houses - houses as spaces where one could be safe and at ease. The poems move through an American landscape, between the South and the North, between childhood and adulthood, reaching toward a home that's never reached, but always at one's fingertips. Throughout the collection, Millikin draws from personal and family history, from classical mythology and architectural theory, to shape a poetry of empathy, in which some of the places where people get lost in America are faced and given place. AFTER HOUSES echo the voices of girls who have not quite survived, but who persist, intact in the way that Rimbaud insists on intactness, in words. Introduction by Tara Betts.

CLAIRE MILLIKIN grew up in Georgia, North Carolina, and overseas. She received her BA in philosophy from Yale University, MFA in poetry from New York University, and PhD in English literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She currently teaches art history and sociology, as a lecturer at the University of Virginia. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines, and she is the author of the chapbook The Gleaners (Tiger's Eye Press, 2013), her first poetry collection, Museum of Snow (Grayson Books, 2013), and After Houses (2Leaf Press, 2014), and Motels Where We Lived (Unicorn, 2014). Millikin participates in numerous conferences, colloquia,presentations, and workshops around the country capturing a wide range of topics, including women's literature, femininity, gender and violence, gothic and ghosts, poverty, and race relations. Her fellowships, honors, and awards include Excellence in Diversity Fellow (Univ. of Virginia, 2011-2012); The Carolyn G. Heilbrun Dissertation Prize (2003); and The Helene Newstead Dissertation Year Fellowship (Graduate Center, CUNY, 2000-2002). Visit her website at www.claireraymond.org.