In this visionary debut, poet Cory Lavender summons, celebrates, and stories the “divergent strands” of his lineage, including his African Nova Scotian ancestry, here lovingly coaxed out of generations of denial.

—Jurors, The Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award

Come One Thing Another is a powerful debut from a poet who know he is, and knows what cards he is holding, and maybe these poems won’t stop the seasons, or repair the past, but they do celebrate his family’s folkloric tall-tales and rich heritage which is stitched throughout using Lavender’s ‘gun-crack’ language which is both colloquial and masterfully controlled and above all else, life affirming.

—Chris Banks, The Wood Lot

Come One Thing Another is an amphitheatre where its characters aren’t found in the arena but converse with the reader from neighbouring seats. Lavender’s writing is deeply authentic, his small-town relatives spring to life through their colloquialisms and idiosyncrasies. He urges us to explore beyond the surface of rural chatter and reconsider the delivery of wisdom. In this quiet worship, Lavender considers the implications of what is ingrained upon us and declares his own triumphant interpretation of personal heritage, always expressing the desire to “extol history’s gravity/extend remembrance, exalt.”

—Nicholas Selig, Miramichi Reader