Ellen Hinsey's third collection, "Update on the Descent" is a powerful meditation on violence, war and human division. Drawing on personal and family experiences - including the murder of her grandmother - as well as research at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, "Update on the Descent" is the companion volume to "The White Fire of Time", a sequence of poetic works that explore the nature of terror as well as the sacred. Dynamically and innovatively written in lyrical and anti-lyrical forms, including prose and aphorism, "Update on the Descent" is a masterwork, an exploration of the extremes of the human condition, tackling issues of civil strife and tyranny, reconciliation and the renewal of the spirit.