My New Poetry Book Was Featured in its First Review

I’m excited to announce that my new poetry book—The Body’s Alphabet--published by Headmistress Press this summer, was featured in its first review.  Poet and editor Rebecca Valley wrote an insightful review for the blog Drizzle Review.  She describes the book as being about betweenness and as embodying a complicated sense of time—of moving forward while looking back. 

Including poems written over most of the past two decades, the book explores the body’s physical and spiritual journeys, often focusing on human vulnerability and the need for belonging.  It uses childhood loneliness, bisexuality, and discontinuity with nature as lenses.  Poet D.A. Powell describes The Body’s Alphabet as being “built on a precarious and often tender journey through homes no longer available to return to” and calls the book “a blessed space . . . : a home for the wayward soul.”  

Some of the poems touch on law and my career as a practicing attorney (none of the poems about teaching made it in).  For example, “swimming through history” compares two river systems—the Truckee and the Skagit—and describes the awe and sense of unworthiness that one can sometimes have as an attorney trying—on behalf of a client--to protect the natural functions of a river system.  More subtly, “nature essay” examines the absurdity and hubris of human claims to private property vis-à-vis animals. 

The book is available from Headmistress Press, Amazon, Powell's, and my website, as well as in a some bookstores and libraries. 

Comments

[Al Brophy]

Congratulations, Ann! This is really exciting.