SOMEWHERE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI, A Chapbook of Poems by the Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2025-7
28pp. ISBN 978-1-939301-58-1 $15.00 (domestic mail only), CA residents add 8% sales tax. BUY NOW PAYPAL click here to order. Email orders to mammothpubs@gmail.com or send check to: MAMMOTH PUBLICATIONS 610 Alta Vista Drive, Healdsburg, California, 95448 For multiple copies contact mammothpubs@gmail.com PAYPAL BUY NOW Click this link.
In clear-sighted language, a scientist Cover by Micqaela Jones interrogates the mythic American West and considers impacts of human migrations. His journey begins near the Mississippi headwaters and culminates in California. A migrant himself, he witnesses Earth’s changes on both coasts and the middle of the U.S. His words clarify, celebrate, grieve, and heal.
The vitality, humor, and compassion of these poems is infectious. Grounded in our interconnectedness with plants, animals, rivers, and soil, these poems unfold histories of environmental degradation, particularly to Native land, and the complexities of repair. They share a deep care for the world and nurture us to be better humans. — Judy Halebsky, author of Tree Line
In Dave Seter’s new chapbook Somewhere West of the Mississippi we wake to his childhood consciousness where the Cuyahoga River is aflame and his lost relatives “charge inside” our minds like ghosts. What does it mean to be alive and awake in this broken world and to have looked at this world carefully and scientifically? It’s a question at the center of this narratively rich collection. A question that Seter makes us return to again and again because, as he writes, “When fog comes it won’t divide us from lichen and moss./ We will breathe. We will just be ourselves, breathing.” —Iris Jamahl Dunkle is the author of four poetry collections, including West: Fire: Archive
DAVE SETER, Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-2026, is a poet, nature writer, reviewer, and essayist. He authored the poetry collections Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences (Cherry Grove Collections, 2021) and Night Duty (Main Street Rag, 2010). Educated as a civil engineer, he writes about social and environmental issues, including the intersections of the built world and natural world. His poems have won the KNOCK Ecolit Prize and received third place in the William Matthews competition. He is the recipient of two Pushcart nominations. His poetry book reviews have appeared in Cider Press Review, Poetry Flash, and Tupelo Quarterly. He is also studying Lithuanian and has translated poems by contemporary Lithuanian poets into English and published them in literary journals. He has been an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and has served on the Board of Directors of Marin Poetry Center. Seter earned his undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Princeton University and his graduate degree in humanities from Dominican University of California.
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