“Unearth [The Flowers] sees the pastoral tradition of poetry through a contemporary feminist lens that shows Thea Matthews as a writer of urgency and authentic concern. Or as Matthews herself says, ‘where there is land / there is blood.’ This is a book of catalogue, of taxonomy, of the need to name the earth and stand on it whole.”

— JERICHO BROWN, author of The Tradition

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“Unearth [The Flowers] is a blooming battle cry, a feat of alchemy in which the personal and political merge in a brutal empathy. Rage and sorrow and the liberation of healing unfurl in a landscape of flowers—this is true literary witchcraft.”

— MICHELLE TEA, author of Against Memoir

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“Unearth [The Flowers] is a refusal of silence and a testament to survival, speaking back to the damages with a gorgeous bouquet of poems. Thea Matthews conjures poetic magic for healing and bearing witness with vibrant, lyrically rich poems.”

— TIANA CLARK, author of I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood

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“Thea Matthews is a poetic herbalist, using flowers to create healing. This work is egalitarian, touching on blooms of all sorts: indigenous, imported, bolted, and cultivated. You will feel these poems in the root of your jaw, in your foot arches. Matthews is an experienced poet with a deft hand and an honest heart. These words languidly stretch, snap like a lock blade, they drape and twine and reach.  Read this work and be changed.”

— KIM SHUCK, San Francisco Poet Laureate

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"Thea Matthews is the voice and protector of our generation. Brave poems like a universe that has decided to go forward with a third testament. Thea Matthews is our sacred underground; the only host of our ascension.”

— TONGO EISEN-MARTIN, author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes

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“Gratitude to Thea for finding life amongst what is so often stepped on underestimated and misnamed. Honor to Thea for listening to the loudness in the small. Praise to Thea for the magnitude of this healing which is big enough for all of us.”

— ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS, author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity

 

“Pick up this book, and read. Unearth [The Flowers] reveals the language of resilience, resistance, and power, and each poem demonstrates that we cultivate our own healing.”

— E. K. KEITH, author of Ordinary Villains

 
 “Thea Matthews’s Unearth [The Flowers] is an exquisite debut poetry collection. Ultimately, it is universal in its breadth, rich in imagery, heartbreaking in its scope, and affirming in its ability to center resiliency of the human spirit.”

— JP HOWARD, author of SAY/MIRROR

 
 “Thea Matthews’s poems excavate and explore family traumas and relationships. Voice and silence deliver deep beauty and urgency. This is a language of flesh, blood, soil, sorrow, and ultimately healing. Matthews’s Unearth [The Flowers] is a bold and remarkable debut poetry collection.”

— MAW SHEIN WIN, author of Invisible Gifts: Poems

 
 “Matthews’s careful investigation of each flower paired with an emotional journey is ambitious poetic work which deserves careful attention—these poems are crucial for our times.”

— MK CHAVEZ, author of Mothermorphosis and Dear Animal

 
“When the wickedness and perfidiousness of humans and the vagaries and cruelties of fate create their wreckage in us, it seems prudent to describe the results in terms of the delicacies of flowers. This is what Thea Matthews has done in this, her intelligent and magnificent debut collection.”

— NATASHA DENNERSTEIN, author of Seahorse and coauthor of Turn and Face the Strange

 

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