In Her Startling Debut. Anna Leigh Knowles lays bare the suburban violence and wrenching pain that belie clean white picket fences and houses neatly aligned down neighborhood streets. In the haunting shadow of the Rocky Mountains, from cowboy restaurants and Coors Field to Columbine High School and AA meetings, her poetry explores how fear, grief, and agony can unexpectedly take hold and settle into the smallest spaces within us. Never shying away from the darkness, Knowles illuminates what it truly means to have grit, to survive, to take root and bloom. These poems include strong yet imperfect characters struggling against addiction and hopelessness. Charged moments of rebellion and anguish coexist alongside love and care. Conditions of the Wounded disrupts expectations and challenges us to look deep beyond the surface.