Marianne Mersereau draws from the rich storytelling "porch culture" of her native Southern Highlands of Appalachia to create, In the Grip of Grace, a memoir in verse replete with wild ghost tales, mythologies and folklores of the unique characters who populate the pages. Themes of family, nature, grief, and the long-lasting impacts of war are explored. The narrative poems serve as witness to both triumphs and losses and to grace harvested from loss.