Slope of the Child Everlasting sustains the lyric and imagistic sensibility of Laurie Kutchins' previous poetry collection,The Night Path (BOA Editions, 1997), while expanding on its exploration of the archetypes that anchor the heart and mind of her poetry. The characters in these poems evoke chaos and regression, as well as song, wonder, and the tenacity of the imagination. Laurie Kutchins is an associate professor of English at James Madison University in Virginia. She lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and spends her summers along the Wyoming-Idaho border.The Night Path won the 1997 Isabella Gardner Award from BOA Editions.