On The Deletions (coming in 2025 from University of Akron Press):
How do we build beauty around absence; or, perhaps even more eerie, how do we scaffold presence around the act of disappearing? This poet uses masterful storytelling, personal revelation, and shapely, musical stanzas to unpack the lonely spaces of contemporary life. A straightforward litany of The Deletions’ themes—elegy, divorce, infertility, climate change—pales beside the realized ache of the individual moment, shot through with wry and exacting wit: “I think he thinks I’m sedated but I am just / awake saying hi to everyone like usual except / there’s iodine on my torso / there’s lidocaine in my feelings.” These poems gather a lifetime of loss into their arms, crush the reader into that messy embrace, and defiantly holler towards hope.
—Sandra Beasley, author of Made to Explode
On Earth Science (more reviews here and here):
“I’m tremendously moved by the insight and appetite in this eloquent debut.”
—Gail Mazur
“She makes wisdom sound peculiarly exciting.”
—David Rivard
“We’re in the hands of a deft and sympathetic intelligence.”
—Rebecca Lindenberg
“Welcome to the Neighborhood answers our urgent need for a contemporary examination of the complex connections between individuality and collectivity, between person and place. This book is exceptional and necessary.”
Erica Dawson, author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God
BUY/READ:
The Deletions (University of Akron) pre-order link coming in 2025 🙂
Earth Science (421 Atlanta, 2016) is out of print, but is available in these 43 libraries.
Welcome to the Neighborhood (Ohio University Press, 2019) can be ordered here: https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Welcome+to+the+Neighborhood