Shannon Cuthrell's artfully composed The Great Repression is a collection of original poems scanning a manic-depressed period in Cuthrell's life. The book is beautifully condensed into jagged elliptical vivid and sometimes funny images accompanied by surreal illustrations by her dear brother and collaborator Bradford Cuthrell. Her work is infused with richly developed scenes that include cocktail-party demons Pink Floyd references and bass drum fingertips. The Great Repression appeals to all senses and also to the heart in the way it finds language for deep emotions. This is a lovely and hopeful book and marks the debut of a major new American poet. Shannon Cuthrell is a student-journalist and storyteller who thrives in Appalachian State University's mountainous environment in Boone North Carolina. She intends to pursue a career in medical journalism after she graduates. "Producing its own irresistibly smart gravitational draw The Great Repression is a fanged mermaid of lore beautifully dreadful but inherently gratifying."- Joseph Denman Curiosity Project. "Dear Reader: If you are anything like me you might think you are simply reading a collection of poetry when you pick up The Great Repression until Shannon Cuthrell hits you with a line like &lsquoI was on fire with all of the love / you couldn't give me ' and suddenly you are reading something more than poetry but the blueprint of words you want to graffiti outside the train window of your morning commute or the script of what to whisper into your lover's hair at night."- Megan Falley author of Redhead and the Slaughter King (Write Bloody Publishing)
