Join us in celebrating the launch of Madison-area poet Krissy Kludt’s debut collection, I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little, in conversation with Heather Swan, on Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 6:00pm.
Set among the oak-dotted hills and granite heights of northern California, I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little distills moments of communion with the natural world into spare, lilting poems. The collection examines motherhood and daughterhood and turns to the living land as source of solace and nurturing.
Following a reading, poet and nonfiction writer Heather Swan will join Krissy Kludt in conversation. Signed copies of I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little will be available for purchase after the event. Light catering will be provided by Ancestral Rebel.
Praise for I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little:
"I read I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little in two mesmerized sittings and never got over how, in the sorrows of Krissy’s poems, and in their joys, there is equal grandeur. She finds ways to make dread and loss so beautiful it infuses her fears with a fearlessness. Her attention to wildness is exquisite, and embraces opposites without hesitation….This is sheer mastery, and in a first book! I’ll be reading Krissy with elation for as long as I last."
- David James Duncan, author of Sun House, The Brothers K, and The River Why
"Krissy Kludt’s I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little evokes a special feeling… akin to a deep breath of petrichor; the scent of freshly damp earth after a long dry spell. Her poems rehydrate and enliven a sense of reverent curiosity…. and sprout hope in a time of significant transformation."
- Rowen White, Akwesasne Mohawk author and seedkeeper
“There’s a ghost in this book, a ghost with eyes pried open to the living and dying world, a home place far too precious and mysterious for exile….I Could Walk Forever and Know So Little whispers from these hills, this interstitial knowing: there’s still abundance here, right here, even amid the crush. There’s an invitation from some god, or ghost, that demands for our attention, longs for a love that endures only if we let it in. Kludt’s new collection… reminds me at every turn: what we let in breathes shape to our heart. Surrender to that, and be held.”
- Nicholas Triolo, author of The Way Around
"Krissy Kludt loiters on words that would have us stop and look down to see the smallest thing, even as sylvan giants with their boughs in the clouds loom lyrically overhead….This collection, long overdue but right on time in a world needing wild peace and love, proves true to the task of providing both. Take it with you when you walk. Read it aloud by the water and hear her voice."
- J. Drew Lanham, author of Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves, and The Home Place
About Ancestral Rebel: Through the partnership of storyteller-chefs Pitāēpanuhkiw Lucy Grignon and Farah Momen, AncestralRebel transforms meals into movements. Lucy's deep connection to Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee traditions creates rustic, earth-centered cuisine that speaks to Indigenous innovation and resilience. Farah bridges her Bengali heritage with global food stories, analyzing political and social histories to make our disconnected world feel more connected. Together, they create feasts that honor woven histories and nurture collective healing, where food becomes a bridge between past and future, tradition and transformation.
