Dead Peasant's Handbook

Following the loose series of Turner's other recent 2023 publications, The Wild Delight of Wild Things and The Goodbye World Poem, this third book in this "e;collection"e; serves as a poetic guide to help us navigate the world we live in. The Dead Peasant's Handbook begins with the difficulty and hardship of living in the world after losing a loved one before allowing oneself to gravitate again towards delight and wonder. With deep dives into history, the poems traverse the wild terrain of our lives, and it remains ever-constant to the theme at the core of all three recent books-that of love and loss. The poems take their structure from guidebooks, featuring subject areas connected to the general experience of being human: war and conflict, dreams, love and loss, and survival. The book itself takes its title from an insurance industry policy ("e;Dead Peasants"e;) in which companies can take out insurance on their workforce in case of loss or death-sometimes without employees knowing. And so, this book is also a commentary on the people and moments that are too often elided over and given the vault of silence, and maybe lost to time.