The Smell of Good Mud explores the grit and splendor of collective living, queer parenting and other radical choices in the conservative landscape of Oklahoma.


Lauren Zuniga has made a name for herself for fearlessly confronting legislators and being an ambassador for the Heartland. This collection is the underbelly. No emotion is spared. No image is lost. It is a field guide to blisters and curtsies. It is a chronicle of women/children/animals coming together in a house named Clementine.


Praise


"A voice that can change the game"

- Daily Kos



"She is brilliant. Her poem made me cry"

- Governor Brad Henry



"Dear Lauren, it is impossible to read your book without falling in love with you. I stopped reading before the end so I wouldn't show up on your Oklahoma porch wearing a baby blue tuxedo, ring in hand, begging you to stuff a fistful of cake in my mouth."

- Andrea Gibson

Zuniga, nationally acclaimed for her powerful poem "To the Oklahoma Lawmakers," hailed as a riveting message about the war on women, presents her latest collection of poetry, The Smell of Good Mud.

In this evocative work, she ventures into the untamed landscape of queer, feminist, collective living in Oklahoma, a conservative state.

Within the walls of Clementine, a house with its own soul, these poems serve a communal meal, kindle a radiant love affair, and unravel the inner carnival of a single mother's heart.