Scene of the Crime

Scene of the Crime exposes the poet's inner criminality, where matricide and mother tongue engage in diabolic discourse. Confessing her outlaw sexuality, Ransom grapples with feminist theory and disembowels postmodern philosophy. Delighting in the multiplicity of self, language and desire, Ransom fires puns dead-aimed to riddle any interpretive reduction.

Story Line Press was created in 1985 by Robert McDowell and Mark Jarman, two young poets who wanted to create a home for new work that might not be published by mainstream commercial or academic presses. Story Line soon gained an international reputation as an independent-minded press that championed narrative and formal poetry, innovative anthologies, and criticism written in a public voice rather than academic style. The press also had a strong allegiance to West Coast writers. Despite its limited resources, Story Line became one of the most influential literary presses of the era publishing a mix of new and established writers including Donald Justice, Rita Dove, Christian Wiman, Donald Hall, David Mason, Amy Uyematsu, and Weldon Kees.