To say that Mirabilis is a book about anorexia is like saying the myth of the minotaur is a story about an ox. Coming from Virginia, with an old English name like Ingram (also the name of a major American publisher), Laura's Mirabilis is a kind of Reconstruction poem: not only of her body and of the American South but of the flitting of consciousness between the bright and broken moments of her mid-Atlantic sunshine.Ingram probably means "Ing's ram"-Ing who was the euhemeristic man-deity of early Europeans and for whom English was given its name--the ram our well known head-butting friend. These poems are sacrificial like her last name: filled with a divine light, and blood.Robin Wyatt Dunn, author of Black Heart UprisingLaura Ingram's Mirabilis moves quietly and fiercely into the age of painful transitions from adolescence to young womanhood. Childhood is reminisced, the hard indignities of body expectations, boys snapping young women's bras, friends committing suicide too young, reflections in store windows of an early and young body with pools of clothing falling around a young girl because of her eating disorder. Yet there is an equally strong determination to survive, the act of Ingram's language itself seeking to rise above self-destruction. In the quietness of these poems is the love and honesty of self-recognition, a portrayal of pain yet the resistance of a survivor.Josh Barkan, author of Mexico: StoriesIngram's work hits close to home, bringing to life realities that some may deem to harsh to acknowledge with a grace and eloquence far beyond her years. What she has created here with Mirabilis is incredible, heart-wrenching in the best way, a piece of her soul bared to the world, and those who read this will find a sort of brutal honesty in her words, reminding us in a timeless manner to look past the surface. Despite the fact that I cried more than once while reading this, I still hold firm the belief that it was for the best, as it invoked emotions that I usually do not care to admit having.S. F. Lopez, author of Ghost of Orion
