by animator Qinru Zhang

This I Can Tell You walks in through the front door and looks under the sofa. It measures the length of the wall, taps to find the beams. It removes the hammer and the nails from the toolbox, places them in a line to find the difference. This is a poetic narrative that examines structures within a home. It navigates Spering’s muffled timeline due to the fragility of memory as a result of trauma and the secrecy maintained within a family, like a well-groomed dog.

about This I Can Tell You

  • "This I Can Tell You pieces together the complexity of a father-daughter relationship through family history, memory, self-doubt, and belief.”

    — Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn, author of A Fish Growing Lungs

  • “Skillfully mimetic of how trauma is retroactively recalled/ or not, narrated/ or not, this series of poetic meditations tells a story of everyday resilience through re-collection.”

    -Maria Damon, author of Postliterary America: From Bagel Shop Jazz to Micropoetries

  • “Riveting and haunting, This I Can Tell You chronicles an intimate recollection of familial history, and a reconstruction of self in the aftermath of homicide. Part elegy, part memoir, part true-crime story, this book surges from a house of mystery.”

    -Thea Matthews, poet and author of Unearth [The Flowers]

press

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