Digging Beneath Bones, teri elam's debut poetry collection travels through memory, lineage, rupture, and return, illuminating the body that navigates this rite of passage-a Black, Southern woman of a certain age-moving through the comfort and discomfort of relationships, dysfunction, family, truth, and self. It explores memory as a concept, a need, and a loss. A portrait of caretakers, aunties, nieces, and Black boy joy, it highlights meaning through music, television, myth, prayer, and the small altars of daily life. Above all, it is a love letter to a mother from a daughter, looking through their kaleidoscope, shining light on the broken bits of colored glass that create an infinite number of shapes, holding their testimony and memory.
