An enlightening volume of contemporary coming-of-age vignettes spanning nearly four decades, this poetry collection reads like a life-long conversation with a trusted guardian of secrets. Stafford distills the insights of a maturing heart into poems with eyes open and thoughtful, and with a voice clear and compassionate. In simple language that gets to the point, Stafford’s poems carefully observe the complexities of human nature and the intricacies of the natural world. Her poetry is sensual and spiritual, humorous and unflinching, tender and truthful. As an urban American woman straddling the Gen X and Millennial generations, in The Back Forty, Stafford examines the light, dark and gray of hard-won lessons gleaned from lovers, losses, marriage, motherhood, midlife, grief, depression and gratitude for life. Sometimes heart-warming and sometimes tear-jerking, each poem is a story told in verse. Katherine Stafford’s poetry is unvarnished yet shining with hope.