This year, Meg Wade’s poetry collection Slick Like Dark established her as one of Nashville’s most talented poets. The collection is about violence and sex, grief and desire, deep woods and dark cellars. “If something is beautiful,” Wade writes, “it’s frightening.” Slick Like Dark implores us not to look away from darkness, but to explore what we find there and use it for survival. It’s rare that I read a collection of poetry in one sitting, but Slick Like Dark is so intensely readable, the speaker’s journey through trauma so dramatic, that I was finished before I knew it. This book will mark you. ERICA CICCARONE
Best Poetry Collection
Meg Wade’s Slick Like Dark
Photo: Daniel Meigs
