In Tender Hooks, Fennelly includes poems that track the joys, trials, and complexities of new motherhood. Having studied motherhood “as if for an exam,” Fennelly’s speaker delineates how the reality of motherhood may veer off course from the expectation. “I wrote Tender Hooks,” Fennelly said, “because I wanted to figure out what I was experiencing.” Of Tender Hooks, Lucinda Williams writes, “Beth Ann Fennelly’s perspective on motherhood is the boldest I’ve ever witnessed. She explores areas openly that others only think about in the privacy of their minds. Her poems are brave and beautiful.”