A family of five, Mrs. G, Mr. G and the daughter, along with a chorus and a collector (ghostly cousins perhaps or kindred ghosts or genealogists extraordinaire), inhabit Becca Jensen’s Among the Dead: Ah! and Afterward Yes! The family’s home rests on the foundations of English and classical literature; the lilt and language of which seep through the floorboards and into the air they breathe. Reading becomes the basis for living. Imagination mingles seamlessly with reality. And interpretation is the main form of play, and the play, dear sirs, is the thing.

Winner of the inaugural Les Figues Press NOS (Not Otherwise Specified) Contest as selected by guest judge Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Among the Dead: Ah! and Afterward Yes! is Jensen’s first full-length collection. These are poems of adventure and event, sequences and moments, and behind each is the possibility of finding comfort, kinship—or at the very least, meaning—in our stories and the world around them.

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