Poetry. Barbara Brackney's LATE AUGUST is a searing and personal examination of the author's life and death. Written during the late stages of terminal cancer, this book explores sex, death, poverty, and love through carefully crafted poems, each one a compelling and transcendant portrait. Brackney turns her unflinching attention to her upbringing in the deep south, her battle with alcoholism, her battle with cancer, and her discovery of love. "LATE AUGUST by Barbara Brackney does what great poetry should do: it elucidates our ephemeral human condition and brings us comfort. Her poems are clear, concise, intelligent indictments of death, illness, her own shortcomings, God, and everything in between. But they're also exquisite and funny. She writes from a place where there's nothing to hide, and reveals an unsentimental, eternal love for our lot"—Jennifer L. Knox.