“Catherine Pierce’s long-awaited third collection is a spirited exploration of a terrain where mercurial tornadoes turn up and leave ‘chickens plucked naked, goats in bedrooms, [and] trout silvering the cotton fields.’ With a jeweler’s eye and an uncanny knack for embracing devastating truths and desires, Pierce rewrites what it means to sift through wreckage of both heart and land. This book is, simply, exquisite.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil

“The Tornado Is the World is both an irresistible invitation and a warning flare. These poems churn and grin and spit, rousing the reader with their bright wattage of lilt and glint underscored by peril. With empathy, dazzling insight, and dexterity, Pierce sings in the voice of the tornado and the terrified, all while reminding readers of the potential joy still waiting for us amidst the destruction: that feeling ‘when a red sun rises out of a place / you never thought could house a sun.’” —Simone Muench

“Catherine Pierce likes to toy with fear the way it toys with us. While she sees clearly how precarious our existence is, her imagination allows her to conjure and, at least on the page, master fear, which she describes as “that creeping illness / that keeps you cowed and dull.” Danger, in this context, unleashes her sense of play, her linguistic enthusiasm, triggering the very force that makes her world—and the world of her readers—more exciting. Here, menace is a muse, and Catherine Pierce a rousing poet.”  —Bob Hicok