A poetic primer on mothering and motherhood, After Birth is unflinching in its celebration of new life. Proffering poems that are both alchemical and personal, Elizabeth Ross taps into the contradictions of creation ? joy, distress, lassitude ?all while her speaker tenderly hovers, like Nosferatu, over newborns. After Birth ?blood[ies] the word,? and marks Elizabeth Ross as a writer to watch.