Back in print, Carr's powerful poems seek out and face violence and
its counterforces.
Julie Carr obsessively researches instances of intimate terrorism,
looking everywhere from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to lists of
phobias and weapon-store catalogs. She searches for what can be learned
from the statistics, the statements by and about rapists and killers,
the websites of hate groups, and the capacity for cruelty that lies
within all of us. 100 Notes on Violence is a diary, a document, and a
dream log of the violence that grips America and devastates so many. But
Carr also offers a layered and lyric tribute to violence's
counterforces: love, commonality, and care. Her unflinching "notes"
provoke our minds and burrow into our emotions, leading us to confront
our fears and our own complicity.