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CROSSING STATE LINES

$19.95

In Anne Babson’s Crossing State Lines, the boundaries of time, geography, and political identity dissolve in a sweeping poetic odyssey through the American psyche. At its heart, the collection is a surreal "time capsule," where the ghost of Walt Whitman and the very real figure of Liz Cheney navigate a nation teetering between its mythic past and an uncertain, "post-factual" future.

Moving from the gritty, "zombie-walked" commutes of Manhattan to the expansive, brutal beauty of Montana, Babson explores what it means to be an American across the centuries. Whitman, the "patient optimist," is resurrected to witness the modern era—encountering everything from TSA scanners and glowing "boxes" of digital melodrama to the looming scent of civil strife. Meanwhile, Liz Cheney emerges as a figure of quiet, muddy-booted resolve, fishing on Wyoming lakes and reflecting on the "end of history" while grappling with a country divided by "obvious lies" and the echoes of her own family legacy.

Through a rich tapestry of forms—from ghazals and rondels to gritty free verse—Babson weaves together the voices of immigrants at Ellis Island, exhausted Midtown office workers, and historical figures like Phillis Wheatley. Crossing State Lines is a defiant, lyrical meditation on honor, the "commute" between our dreams and reality, and the enduring hope that we might still find common ground.

In Anne Babson’s Crossing State Lines, the boundaries of time, geography, and political identity dissolve in a sweeping poetic odyssey through the American psyche. At its heart, the collection is a surreal "time capsule," where the ghost of Walt Whitman and the very real figure of Liz Cheney navigate a nation teetering between its mythic past and an uncertain, "post-factual" future.

Moving from the gritty, "zombie-walked" commutes of Manhattan to the expansive, brutal beauty of Montana, Babson explores what it means to be an American across the centuries. Whitman, the "patient optimist," is resurrected to witness the modern era—encountering everything from TSA scanners and glowing "boxes" of digital melodrama to the looming scent of civil strife. Meanwhile, Liz Cheney emerges as a figure of quiet, muddy-booted resolve, fishing on Wyoming lakes and reflecting on the "end of history" while grappling with a country divided by "obvious lies" and the echoes of her own family legacy.

Through a rich tapestry of forms—from ghazals and rondels to gritty free verse—Babson weaves together the voices of immigrants at Ellis Island, exhausted Midtown office workers, and historical figures like Phillis Wheatley. Crossing State Lines is a defiant, lyrical meditation on honor, the "commute" between our dreams and reality, and the enduring hope that we might still find common ground.

Praise for CROSSING STATE LINES

"Delightful! Anne Babson's Crossing State Lines is timeless as your childhood and as shocking as your first romance."

E. Jean Carroll

 

"Anne Babson has done it again. This poet's ability to immediately establish a brilliant conceit and inhabit disparate personae should be studied. In Crossing State Lines, Babson lays down a formally adventurous dialogue between two unexpected American figures: Walt Whitman and Liz Cheney. Highlighting Whitman's surprise at a changed modern world, and Cheney's remarkable resistance in the face of rising authoritarianism, Babson uses our supposed understandings of U.S. history and current events to advance a wholly enlightening perspective on the nation."

Maurice Carlos Ruffin

 

About ANNE BABSON

Anne Babson received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and has a terminal degree in writing from The City College of New York, where she studied under the great poet Marilyn Hacker. She remains ABD in English at the University of Mississippi with a focus on Middle English and Middle French Literature. Anne Babson is the author of five full length collections of poetry, The White Trash Pantheon (Vox Press, 2014), which won the Colby H. Kullman Award at the Southern Writers/Southern Writing Conference, Polite Occasions (Unsolicited Press, 2018), Messiah, (Saint Julian Press, 2019), The Bunker Book (Unsolicited Press, 2022), and a forthcoming collection entitled Crossing State Lines, under contract to be published in 2026. She is the author of multiple poetry chapbooks as well. Her individual poems have appeared in literary journals on five continents. She is the librettist to the opera Lotus Lives, Su Lian Tan, composer, which has been produced in New York, Boston, Montreal, and several college towns and continues to be produced in other venues. She wrote the play Reenactment, which was published by Review Americana. She has written several short stories that have appeared in literary journals. She served as President of the Women’s National Book Association of New Orleans from 2022 to 2025. She served on the editorial board of the literary journal Peauxdunque Review from 2022 to 2024. She has taught at Southeastern Louisiana University since 2016.

 

  • Genre: Poetry
    ISBN:978-1-969421-18-1
    Publication: October 6, 2026