The Ralls County Line: Sketches from a Rural Mid-American Odyssey

Jude MacAllen Tatman’s voice comes from where he rightly insists is pronounced “Missoura.” But it’s not the spit-and-whittle palaver some might expect. It’s authentic, grounded, its sound and rhythms coming from his native soil and big heart. One could say he “takes in” his landscapes and waterscapes—if that means he absorbs them, pulling you with him. His long sentences involve an often Miltonic cadence and a Whitmanesque cataloging of details ancient and present. “The Perfect Pour,” his poem about the proper way to drink a pint of Irish stout, can be taken as a metaphor of how to take in life itself: it’s to be done in detail, deliberately, with passion, and reverence. The Ralls County Line will pull you in.
—William Trowbridge, author of Maintenance

Jude MacAllen Tatman’s first poetry collection shows none of the hurry of most debuts. He has spent a lifetime watching and thinking about the world—from Missouri to Ireland—and, as with an expertly poured stout, concluded that 'rest is necessary to allow the last / bit of flourish.’ Now that he’s opened the spigot, I suspect he's just getting started.
—Kevin Clouther, Director, University of Nebraska ​​​​​​​MFA in Writing

The deeply lived experience Tatman weaves through this revelatory first collection envelops the reader in his natal habitat shot through with darkness and light, woods and waters, birds and dogs, revelation and wistful love. A child of the river, it flows through him as it does all of us, forever binding us and revealing its secrets and wonders in fleeting glimpses and reminding us that we are but passengers on this journey. Thankfully, we have his words to satiate us.
—​​​​​​​Brooks D. Scott, Angler, Activist, and Outdoor Writer ​​​​​​​ Tatman is a poet of place, but in the most expansive understanding of such-- home, heart, history, family, and landscape. His debut collection of poetry, "The Ralls County Line," is not just an invitation to journey with an expert poet-guide whose voice is both confident and vulnerable, but also an invitation to interact with your own personal story of locale-- both exterior and interior.
—Cheryl Dyer, Visual Artist and Poet