All That Names Us reaches into family, loss, yearning, and those surprising moments of feeling at home in the midst of it all. The poems are an attempt to reveal what is most personal and true. They hope to capture the texture of life as it is lived, within and without, in grace and in its absence.

"Eloquent and indelible, these plainspoken poems are intensely real, evoking people and places in postwar America, both the rural South and the rustbelt North. Like my favorite books of poetry, this collection is also a secret autobiography. One by one, the poems are very fine, but they link up to suggest a memoir that looks both out at the world and deep into the soul. It is hard to believe this is Keith Walker's first book."

- Christopher Bram, Author of Gods and Monsters

"Keith Walker writes from inside what he has richly absorbed. His poems are faithful, like James Wright, to his empathy for the lost, the lonely, the rejected. They embody the full emotional register that glows with spiritual resonance and deep compassion. Ultimately, Walker’s poetry arrives at the too-rare understanding that 'the heart has a shelf for everything.' This numinous collection expands the heart."

- Philip Terman, Author of My Blooming Everything