"Suzanna de Baca reaches out and tenderly pulls us into her warm and loving embrace in her new book, You Were Never Lost: Poems from the Tallgrass Prairie.

Breezes whisper, flowers speak, and the prairie is alive with her words. My pain fades as I read, with the same kind of healing I feel walking the timber and prairie at dawn.

Her words comfort and challenge us to learn, love, and appreciate as never before. Walk her words, and you will see more, feel more, and love more. Know that even if we aren't at one with the earth, we should be-and work toward that end. You were never lost."

- Robert Leonard, PhD, author of Deep Midwest and Yellow Cab

"Suzanna de Baca's debut poetry collection bring us into a deep sense of place and kinship, reminding us of 'The grass still leaning toward where you stood./ The sun's ray holding your place in the light.' Imploring us take in the vista of earth and sky, she continually guides us toward a deeper sense of home and belonging, especially essential when facing loss and letting go. 'Loss is/ the fire/ that clears the field, ' she writes while also invoking the call of frogs, 'hollow note' of breeze, and so many other talismans to show us our lives."

- Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, past Kansas Poet Laureate and author of The Magic Eye: A Story of Saving a Life and a Place in the Age of Anxiety