Natural History: Poems

Natural History: Poems - Paperback

$17.00
Sale price  $17.00 Regular price 
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Natural History: Poems

Natural History: Poems - Paperback

by Brandon Kilbourne
$17.00
Sale price  $17.00 Regular price 

Book Overview

by Brandon Kilbourne (Author)

A unique work of science and poetry, winner of the Cave Canem Prize, selected by Natasha Trethewey

A research biologist most recently at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Brandon Kilbourne illuminates the intersections between science and poetry in poems that demonstrate the wonder, curiosity, and precision required by both disciplines.

Natural History opens by confronting the hidden histories within the study of biology and its links to colonialism, including the revelation that European scientists used slave ships to transport specimens from Africa and the Americas back to Europe. Across the collection, Kilbourne describes how these histories of exploitation are still reflected in dioramas of elephants, rhinoceroses, and African people displayed in natural history museums. Other poems narrate the intricate work of studying fossils, and a longer sequence recounts an expedition above the Arctic Circle to recover evidence of how a fish's fins gave rise to the diversity of limbs found among amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Natural History is a rare and fascinating debut, and Kilbourne's exquisite eye brings the role of the working biologist to life.

Author Biography

Brandon Kilbourne has a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Chicago and over twenty years of experience as a research biologist at natural history museums. His poetry has appeared in Ecotone, Obsidian, Poet Lore, and elsewhere.

Number of Pages: 96
Dimensions: 0.37 x 10.32 x 4.4 IN
Publication Date: November 04, 2025
ISBN9781644453674
Author Brandon Kilbourne
PublisherGraywolf Press
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedNovember 2025
LanguageENG- English
Pages96
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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