Book excerpt: Gary Phillips is a "child of Appalachia, a womanist, a singer." He is also the poet laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina. In The Boy The Brave Girls Phillips offers poetry, short stories and compact social essays that untangle some of the liminal emotional spaces we inhabit in the early 21st century. Poet Celisa Steele writes: "Gary Phillips is one of the most loving and hopeful poets I know." Open this collection and see for yourself.