The Swagger of Dorothy Gale and Other Filthy Ways To Strut

A visceral and sonic world of teeth and tornadoes, Sea Sharp's The Swagger of Dorothy Gale explores a Midwestern past muddied by L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz fantasy and the realities of women and African Americans on the prairie. Sharp re-imagines Dorothy as a girl with "some grit in her teeth" as she navigates Kansas, examining "marvelous gray ghosts in the heartland" through personal and communal narratives that romp and strut across the lines. Satirical and poignant, The Swagger of Dorothy Gale startles and swirls contemporary issues of race, equality, and place in the dusty plains of Kansas, seeking to understand the real meaning of "there's no place like home." This book is our second Prairie Seed Poetry Prize Award-winner.

Poetry judge and well-known author Debra Marquart wrote: "There are so many things that I love about this manuscript—in particular, its vibrant energy. The poems are, at turns, exuberant, outward, historical, irreverent, revisionist, and playful. They swagger. The manuscript enriches the picture of what complex forces, people, and events shape the Midwest."