Joy Sullivan - "The book is named after its titular poem, 'Instructions for Traveling West.' Once I decided this was the guiding poem of the book and also its title, I used lines from the poem to act as guideposts or directional markers to delineate each of the collection's five sections.
"When I first mapped out the book, I had it originally following a (fairly predictable) trajectory of disruption, journeying, and home. After reorganizing, I realized a more honest structure would be to end---not on some kind of resolved home-making--- but on the concept of 'Joy is not a trick,' which is also the final line of the titular poem." joysullivanpoet.com
"When I first mapped out the book, I had it originally following a (fairly predictable) trajectory of disruption, journeying, and home. After reorganizing, I realized a more honest structure would be to end---not on some kind of resolved home-making--- but on the concept of 'Joy is not a trick,' which is also the final line of the titular poem." joysullivanpoet.com
May 2025
John Gallaher - "I was adopted at the age of three, after the divorce of my parents and death of my father, within the extended family, but due to complications, both accidental and intentional, I grew up knowing very little about my birth family. In 2018, after the death of my adoptive mother, and with my adoptive father’s health beginning to decline, I decided to go the DNA route to find out more about my birth and early life story in Portland, Oregon. This book is what came out of that journey. "I don’t usually write in such a content-forward way, but no other way seemed appropriate for this subject. The book was, at first, going to be an associative tour of location, where I live, and the idea of friends and neighbors, the seasons, but when the DNA results came back, that became the center. It should have been a simple story to sort out, as from birth to now, I’m my own second cousin, but it took fifty years."
fourwaybooks.com/site/my-life-in-brutalist-architecture/
fourwaybooks.com/site/my-life-in-brutalist-architecture/
Colleen Alles - "While assembling this manuscript, I realized these poems are so deeply concerned with vigilance. These poems are wide awake. These poems are paying a great deal of attention to the world around them; they reflect back that intensity—that fire—of watchfulness.
"The poem governing the collection is one I wrote for my daughter years ago, first published in The Michigan Poet. 'Coming In from the Bonfire' is that spirit of observation, and it helped me land on the book’s title. I was pleased the student-led team at Red Rook Press (University of Alabama) enjoyed the collection—even more pleased to see the art they created and wove into the book’s pages." colleenalles.com
"The poem governing the collection is one I wrote for my daughter years ago, first published in The Michigan Poet. 'Coming In from the Bonfire' is that spirit of observation, and it helped me land on the book’s title. I was pleased the student-led team at Red Rook Press (University of Alabama) enjoyed the collection—even more pleased to see the art they created and wove into the book’s pages." colleenalles.com
Sara Ries Dziekonski - "I grew up in a little red diner in Buffalo that my parents owned for over three decades. After my first book of diner poems was published, I never stopped writing about the diner. These poems became the stand-alone sequel to Come In, We're Open, and they draw us deeper into the grease, secrets, and complexities of diner life. I worked in many restaurants besides the red diner of my roots, and these poems also informed the book. So, my ode---to the family diner, the workers, the forgotten--begins in the little red diner, moves away to other kitchens and counters, and like the diner family, always returns. "I chose Today’s Specials as a title because I wanted to nourish readers; diner poems can offer beautiful sustenance. I also wanted each poem to feel like a featured dish of observation, connection, and nourishment. There are so many interactions that happen in a day, so much magic and mystery, and these are the poems that make the book’s menu."
sararies.com/books
Edna Shochat - "It is thanks to my breasts that I embraced poetry and let its healing magic carry me on the path to recovery. Ironically, it was rather the lack thereof. Suddenly, as I entered the seventh decade of life, I had a brush with mortality and lost the essence and symbol of womanhood and feminine attraction.
"A shuttering event of that nature is bound to make one shuffle priorities and gain a whole new perspective on life. But it also opens a window inward and offers a kind of virtual periscope into one’s self. It can reveal an unexpected exposure into one’s inner powers.
"From my very first mastectomy-inspired poems I couldn't feel any more exposed, in both body and soul. Thus 'Exposure' became an essential part of the title.
"As for the 'Decent' part – I needed to emphasize that it was OK to talk about women’s health and women’s bodies, even in a culture where some of that is still regarded as taboo. Because it is the way you present your case that makes all the difference." poeticamea.com
"A shuttering event of that nature is bound to make one shuffle priorities and gain a whole new perspective on life. But it also opens a window inward and offers a kind of virtual periscope into one’s self. It can reveal an unexpected exposure into one’s inner powers.
"From my very first mastectomy-inspired poems I couldn't feel any more exposed, in both body and soul. Thus 'Exposure' became an essential part of the title.
"As for the 'Decent' part – I needed to emphasize that it was OK to talk about women’s health and women’s bodies, even in a culture where some of that is still regarded as taboo. Because it is the way you present your case that makes all the difference." poeticamea.com
November 2019
Julie Marie Wade - "Many years ago, after I had come out to my parents and moved across the country with my partner, I learned from a friend that my mother had begun to explain my absence from their lives by saying, 'Julie is married to a surgeon, and living in New England.' My book is a linked narrative sequence that tells three stories: the imagined story of my alter-ego and her marriage to Jeffrey, a cardiologist in Vermont; the actual story of my life with Angie, and our pursuit of legal marriage; and the story of my parents, by turns actual and imagined, who turned out to be creative writers, too. Writing this book made me realize we have at least the impulse to 'tell tales' in common.
"The title Same-Sexy Marriage comes from a salient typo in an email I received from Human Resources following my legal marriage to Angie in Washington state. The gist of the message was that the Florida university where I work would not recognize my marriage or confer any of the benefits that my married heterosexual colleagues enjoyed. Despite the formality of this letter, its author added a fateful 'y' to 'same-sex marriage,' and I knew then, despite my heartbreak and outrage at the marital limbo in which I found myself, a book was waiting to be written, and the title had already arrived." juliemariewade.com
"The title Same-Sexy Marriage comes from a salient typo in an email I received from Human Resources following my legal marriage to Angie in Washington state. The gist of the message was that the Florida university where I work would not recognize my marriage or confer any of the benefits that my married heterosexual colleagues enjoyed. Despite the formality of this letter, its author added a fateful 'y' to 'same-sex marriage,' and I knew then, despite my heartbreak and outrage at the marital limbo in which I found myself, a book was waiting to be written, and the title had already arrived." juliemariewade.com
Allison Joseph - "Corporal Muse was scheduled for publication with two other presses before Sibling Rivalry Press, a wonderful publisher out of Little Rock, Arkansas, took a chance on it. It means so much to me that Sibling Rivalry brought this book back from the brink, and did such a beautiful job with it.
"The title is a jokey pun--the title poem has a quasi-military version of the Muse demanding poetic creations. But there's also the play on words--corporal also meaning 'body.' I believe poetry resides in the body and in the mind." allisonjosephpoetry.com
"The title is a jokey pun--the title poem has a quasi-military version of the Muse demanding poetic creations. But there's also the play on words--corporal also meaning 'body.' I believe poetry resides in the body and in the mind." allisonjosephpoetry.com
Mark Cox - "From 2012 until 2018, all but three of my poems insisted on a narrowed prose block format. Even when I lineated them, paying great attention to sound and rhythm, they resisted and reverted to long lines to shallowly bury that music. This ultimately led me, in my 60's, to writing short stories for the first time, which has been very exciting and stimulating.
"The title comes from the closing lines of the titular poem. The lines read, 'There is no such thing as emptiness. There is only being ready.' When I struck upon this, it was clear to me that I had delineated an ineffable psychic state relevant to the entire body of work." markcoxpoet.com
"The title comes from the closing lines of the titular poem. The lines read, 'There is no such thing as emptiness. There is only being ready.' When I struck upon this, it was clear to me that I had delineated an ineffable psychic state relevant to the entire body of work." markcoxpoet.com
Shaindel Beers - "A lot of the poems in this collection deal with domestic violence, but I didn't want the book to be too much for readers. Some of the poems that were longer works, like This Old House, I wrote in parts, and I knew the poem was complete when I had found hope at the end.
"I wrote the title poem, Secure Your Own Mask, while I was on a plane. I was honestly inspired by the flight attendant's pre-flight safety speech in a way I'd never thought about before--that you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of anyone else, which is an important lesson for everyone, but especially for anyone suffering from abuse." shaindelbeers.com
"I wrote the title poem, Secure Your Own Mask, while I was on a plane. I was honestly inspired by the flight attendant's pre-flight safety speech in a way I'd never thought about before--that you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of anyone else, which is an important lesson for everyone, but especially for anyone suffering from abuse." shaindelbeers.com
Julie L. Moore - "When a wife experiences gaslighting for decades, as I did, she constantly doubts herself--her abilities, her perspectives, her very reality--and has to learn to trust her intuition again. And when verbal abuse turns physical, fear takes on a life of its own. Thus, putting together this manuscript would never have been possible without my son, who served as my first reader and editor, and my daughter, who gave me her blessing as well for the book. Both difficult and delightful, their support enabled me, and taught me how to trust my own voice.
"My book uses the motif of full moons and thus, includes twelve poems for each month's full moon; the title for the book comes from the Native American name for March's full moon, a name which signifies the survival of winter, and the emergence of new life." julielmoore.com
"My book uses the motif of full moons and thus, includes twelve poems for each month's full moon; the title for the book comes from the Native American name for March's full moon, a name which signifies the survival of winter, and the emergence of new life." julielmoore.com
