The Drowning Book : Finishing Line Press : 9781635341591 : 1635341590 : 03 Mar 2017 : The uttering of painful secrets wash upon the shoreline of The Drowning Book's poems, and sometimes memory is a wreck smashed beyond recognition. Half-promise and half-prayer, The Drowning Book is meditative, nostalgic, and personally-reflective at first. But as water cannot be contained when it continues to overflow a vessel, the collection becomes a larger petition. It is a baptismal ritual, a beckoning to others to be cleansed and submerged alike. Drawing from the "drowned" voices of silenced minorities, strangers, forgotten ancestors, and even the child-self, Cristina J. Baptista crafts a personal voice with all-too-familiar, universal feelings rising to the surface. Indeed, this collection is a celebration of what has sunk beneath the surface of history and what is worth preserving. Each line lifts a moment, memory, or message once thought inconsequential from a watery grave and breathes new life