Poetry. "Nina Bannett's THESE ACTS OF WATER traces a daughter's journey through the depths of her mother's mental illness. These beautiful, finely crafted poems chronicle love, loss, grief and the redemptive power of memory. The intensity of Bannett's imagery and her deft use of language cohere to form a tightly woven whole that demands to be read more than once. This unflinchingly honest collection resonates with courage, wisdom, grace and the abiding strength that flows out of suffering but is never submerged by it."—Lori Lamothe