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Interview with Author LindaAnn LoSchiavo 

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1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?

Three fortunate circumstances helped me develop into a writer. 

The first influential factor in my life was the privilege of being born in New York City and being exposed to rich cultural experiences as a child.   For example, my relatives took me to the American Museum of Natural History, the Hayden Planetarium, Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, and Broadway shows.  By age six, after the theatre, I started buying a copy of the  drama or musical we’d just enjoyed at a wonderful place in Times Square, The Drama Bookshop.  I wanted to be better equipped during dinner table discussions of the play.  These formative experiences, rooted in The Big Apple’s vibrant cultural milieu, played a pivotal role in shaping my intellectual curiosity and nurturing my appetite for the arts.

The second factor was growing up without a television but with easy access to a library.

The third factor was being surrounded by adults – with limited access to children my own age unless I was in a classroom. Since my parents could not afford to finance a mortgage right away, we lived in a large house with my maternal grandparents and unmarried aunts until I was 4 ½. This household served as a hub for buying and receiving numerous birthday and holiday cards, providing me with ample exposure to bad poetry.  Even as a child, I was critical about awkward rhymes in Hallmark cards, so at age three and a half I launched my own greeting card line. I wrote the verses and one of my aunts illustrated each card. Lots of praise (by our relatives) launched a young formalist.

By age four I was being taken to numerous Broadway matinees.  This made an impact.  By age nine, I had my first one-act play onstage with a cast of five actresses (recruited from my Girl Scouts chapter); it ran for several months in NYC.   Also at age nine, my first poem (“The Tiger”) was published in a school magazine.   At age 15, a short story (“No Way Out”) that I had written for my high school magazine won a gold medal for literary achievement. There has never been a time when I did not think of myself as “a serious writer.”

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2) What inspired you to write your book?

Pure serendipity.  At the time, I had been circulating a 29-poem manuscript, “Women Who Were Warned.” But Beacon Books’ poetry imprint UniVerse Press does not let a poet upload a full manuscript. Instead they want a proposal with a writing sample. As I awaited a response, “Women Who Were Warned” found acceptance from Cerasus Poetry in London, rendering it unavailable for publication anywhere else.  Moreover, UniVerse Press wanted a full-length collection –   and by October 1, 2022.  Opportunity and a deadline blew the whistle.

3) What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?


“Apprenticed to the Night” weaves together the tapestry of everyday encounters with the extraordinary.   Until the pandemic, I had deliberately omitted revealing my supernatural experiences in my writing.  I’m hoping that readers will be open-minded.

4) What drew you into this particular genre?

Since childhood, I’ve been aware of metrical verse and memorized a lot of poems. Writing formal verse comes naturally to me.

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5) What social media site has been the most helpful in developing your readership?

Twitter has a thriving literary community with hashtags such as #amwriting, #poetrycommunity, and #bookbloggers.  I’d love to connect with more reviewers on TikTok a.k.a. #BookTok.

6) What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?

Read widely and immoderately.   Be on the alert for online writing workshops, especially the no-fee options.  For example, Sundress Academy’s Poetry Xfit meets from 2-4PM EST on the third Sunday of every month.   All events are free and hosted via Zoom, which can be accessed at tiny.utk.edu/sundress.

7) What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?

My eerie fully illustrated Samhain-themed collection “Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems” is with a publisher who requested it. (Fingers crossed.) While I am polishing a full-length poetry collection on ghosts, “Dark and Airy Spirits,” I’m finishing up two other chapbooks. One is devoted to suicide poems and the other is inspired by the poignant journey I took with my terminally ill mother when I was her sole caretaker.

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About the Author

Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a four time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, has also been nominated for Best of the Net, the Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars. She is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild.

Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely” (US: Wapshott Press, 2019), “Women Who Were Warned” (UK: Cerasus Poetry, 2022), Firecracker Award, Balcones Poetry Prize, Quill and Ink, Paterson Poetry Prize, and IPPY Award nominee “Messengers of the Macabre” [co-written with David Davies] (US: Audience Askew, 2022), “Apprenticed to the Night” (UK: UniVerse Press, 2023), and “Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide” (Canada: Ukiyoto Publishing, 2023) are her latest poetry titles.

In 2023, her poetry placed as a finalist in Thirty West Publishing’s “Fresh Start Contest” and in the 8th annual Stephen DiBiase contest.

LoSchiavo is a Prohibition Era historian and her Texas Guinan film won “Best Feature Documentary” at N.Y. Women’s Film Fest (Dec. 2021).

― ― links ― ―

https://linktr.ee/LindaAnn.LoSchiavo

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Guest Blog Post from Author Donovan Hufnagle, author of “Raw Flesh Flash: The Incomplete, Unfinished Of”

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Publishing is just another trial as part of the writer’s journey. When we cross the threshold from the known world into the unknown world, answering the call to adventure, entering OZ, Wonderland, the Athenian Forest…into our dreamworld, “somewhere over the rainbow,” we follow the yellow brick road, follow gold bricks in the form of words to counter the white space on the page and, perhaps, in our life. The perfect word(s). This word and not that word. We pass through the abyss, reach the Emerald City, and eventually come back home. But before we can reach the city, earn our gift, tap our heels together, and share it with the known world, the trial of publishing confronts us. 

Publishing is not the end of the journey nor is it a gift. When my first book, Sunshine Special, was published, I thought the world would change. It didn’t. I did, however, reach a revelation…publishing isn’t the key to a magical door that opens a garden of poppies and avenues. When my current book, Raw Flesh Flash: The Incomplete, Unfinished Documenting Of, won a publishing contest and was published by Uncollected Press, I understood that the work had just begun. And I think understanding is crucial. Writers, especially poets, should understand that there may be many times we hear the word NO. It feels personal. It’s not. But when you write and write, edit, and write some more then finally build the strength to submit your work, placing your work on display for someone to just cut it open until it bleeds seems pretty damn personal to me. And, simultaneously, impersonal, since most of the time you receive a cookie cutter rejection from the publisher like they didn’t even bother to read it. 

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On a side note, if you receive a personalized rejection, cherish it. 

Understand that publishing is a business like any other business and your success as a writer is not dependent on publishing. I just received a rejection through Submittable just the other day for one of my poems. I place it in a folder titled “submissions,” forget it and move on. Publishing is not an enemy; it is just a necessary hurdle along the way. 

My advice, then, is to keep writing, and one day you may become published (if that is what you are striving for).  It will feel good. It will be exciting. Someone out there appreciating your work as much as you do. Your hard work will finally be on display for others. You can stop plucking rose petals, wondering if they love you or if they love you not (maybe). Also, understand that the journey is not over. You will need to work just as hard for the next thing, to conquer the next trial. 

It took a long time for me to truly think about publishing—decades. As a younger poet, I wasn’t that interested in publishing. I would submit a poem here or there. But it wasn’t until I crafted my art to a point where I wanted, no, felt like I needed to share it with more than my wife that publishing seemed like the next logical step. So, I put my stuff out there. Scary and exciting. I received rejections. Dejected. I received acceptances. Elated. Some won contests. Some still have never seen the light of day. 

I am at a place, now, in my writing career that I know my talents, I know my successes, and they don’t depend on those publications. But it sure does feel nice. My writings are like my tattoos, on public display for all that I encounter, simultaneously, holding a personal meaning no one else will ever know, unless you ask. Every writer’s journey is unique; some trials along the way may come easy, some may never be conquered, but know the real gift is that you wrote something, you created new, you crafted art for a world where the “dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”

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About the Book

Donovan Hufnagle has assembled a careful poetic ethnography of tattooed bodies and the stories that they tell. Just as the tattoo inscribes meaning on the body, this book elegantly reveals the stories that only the body can tell. It is a book that connects tattoo adorned bodies to a profound human truth: we are each other’s mirrors, and the artful inscriptions of our bodies connect us to each other in ways that transcend political and social divides. This is an urgent book that does what only the best poetry can do; it opens spaces for conversation, connection, and healing.-Kristin Prevallet, author of “I, Afterlife: Essay in Mourning Time”.

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About the Author

Donovan Hufnagle is a husband, a father of three, and a professor of English and Humanities. He moved from Southern California to Prescott, Arizona to Fort Worth, Texas. His new poetry collection, Raw Flesh Flash: The Incomplete, Unfinished Of, is a poetic scrapbook of interviews, poetry, and documents about the universal narrative of tattoos. 

He also has three other poetry collections: The Sunshine Special, a “part personal narrative, epic poem, and historical artifact;” Shoebox, an epistolary, poetic narrative about Juliana’s “past and present, love and lack, in language that startles;” and 30 Days of 19, inverted Haiku poems juxtaposed to Trump tweets, capturing the first thirty days of the Covid 19 quarantine. 

Other recent writings have appeared in The Closed Eye Open, Tempered Runes Press, Solum Literary Press, Poetry Box, Beyond Words, Wingless Dreamer, Subprimal Poetry Art, Americana Popular Culture Magazine, Shufpoetry, Kitty Litter Press, Carbon Culture, Amarillo Bay, Borderlands, Tattoo Highway, The New York Quarterly, Rougarou, and others.

http://www.donovanhufnagle.com/

Writing Journey Over Six Books (and 25 Years) by Jeannine Hall Gailey

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Preamble

I started writing poetry when I was a kid. My mother let me borrow her college poetry textbook (circa 1969), and so I learned about T.S. Eliot, e.e. cummings, poetic forms, metaphors, and such things way before we would get around to them in school. I won a couple of poetry recitation contests in 5th and 6th grade, and the prizes were the collected works of Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg (I still have both). I think the first book of poetry I bought myself was the collected Edna St. Vincent Millay, when I was about 11.  

My first degree was in Pre-Med Biology. I meant to become a doctor—but I took creative writing classes on the side. When I graduated, my immunologist told me there was no way my health would allow me to complete medical school, as grueling as it was in the early nineties. So I decided to set my sights elsewhere. Soon I started my MA in English, where I was introduced to formalism, deconstruction, and other -isms (and made some good friends). When I graduated, looking to be able to support myself, I took a job as a technical writer. I was still writing poetry, but not seriously trying to publish, until a health crisis struck and I had to quit my tech job. My husband suggested pursuing my earlier dream of being a writer. 

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Starting my Journey as a Poet

I tried out some local writer’s conferences (on scholarship) and seriously researching the literary magazine scene, volunteering for a few local literary magazines, and sending out work. I put together enough published poems for a chapbook, and got it published—my first little collection of poems, called Female Comic Book Superheroes.  I applied to a few low-residency MFA programs, and started one, taking a semester off in the middle for (once again) health issues. During that off semester, I sent out my first book manuscript and had it accepted, which was Becoming the Villainess, published by a (then-brand-new) press called Steel Toe Books in Kentucky.  The chapbook and book were considered “speculative” poetry at that time, not very common—poems about video game characters and superheroines were not common in the mainstream literary magazines, certainly not represented in the prizes. So I was a little out there. But it had a very positive response from young people, which I was very happy to see. If you can’t read and enjoy a few poems about comic book story arcs or mythological women turned to dragons when you’re young, then when can you?

Journey from First Book to Sixth

I felt very lucky with that first book—I had some modest success for a very new small publisher and a very small new poet. I was still able to travel more easily back then—making 20-hour car trips between Western Kentucky, Akron, and upstate New York. 

Now that I’m on my sixth book, Flare, Corona, with a great publisher, BOA Editions, I’m a little older, with a little more in terms of health challenges (MS among them), and I’m not physically able to do what I used to. However, with the pandemic, I learned some new skillsets—photography and gardening among them—and I read a lot. During the first months of the pandemic, I tried writing a few personal essays – and got them published in Salon. This book is the most vulnerable and more autobiographical than all my previous books. My previous books: Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, and Unexplained Fevers, I frequently wrote in persona—characters from mythology, fairy tales, anime, and traditional folk tales. In Field Guide to the End of the World, I created a fictional character navigating a fictional apocalyptic landscape (though it didn’t feel fictional in 2020!), so at least there was a little differentiation between the main speaker and myself. In Flare, Corona the speaker is essentially me, describing some incredibly difficult experiences. I had to figure out a way to write these poems in a way that was direct but felt comfortable. I found myself writing a kind of “mutant sonnet” as well as prose poems—forms that helped me hold difficult subject matter in place, so to speak. Some themes from previous books return—a supervillain perspective on coronavirus, apocalypse poems, writing about growing up in Oak Ridge and its radioactive contamination—and those poems allowed me to, for instance, address what I refer to in the book as “the plague years” in a way that felt real and not cliché. 

I’ve learned over the 20 or so years of publishing poetry books that one of the best things about the poetry world is making friends with the people in it—my publishers were, to the person, excellent human beings, and I consider many of them real friends and I truly grieved when I lost one of the them to cancer. I am very lucky to now have a bigger press—BOA Editions, who published some of my poetry heroes, like Dorianne Laux and Lucille Clifton—take my latest book, and I really am enjoying working with them as the book comes out into the world. Kindness to people becomes really important, and supporting other poets and writers as we go through our literary life is something I cannot recommend enough. I’ve been doing poetry book reviews for 20 years, and even if there is little monetary reward in it, I’m happy to have done it. Meeting friends I’ve made at a conference or a reading twenty years ago remains a great pleasure, even if I can’t travel as much as I used to. Community is important as a structure to support you and a structure to support other writers. 

My work itself continues to evolve—as I play around with form, and language, and persona. My next book must be impacted by the last few years, but I don’t want it to be purely about that, and may also involve some of the ideas that appeared in Flare, Corona—the desire or will to survive despite difficult conditions. There will probably be dragons in it.

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About the Author

Jeannine Hall Gailey is a poet with multiple sclerosis who served as the 2nd Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington. She’s the author of six books of poetry: Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, Field Guide to the End of the World, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and the Elgin Award, and the newest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions.  She has a B.S. in Biology and M.A. in English from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from Pacific University. Her work appeared in The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. Her web site is www.webbish6.com.

Flare, Corona (American Poets Continuum Series Book 201) by Jeannie Hall Gailey Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Author and poet Jeannie Hall Gailey share a rich collection of poems that showcase our ability to prevail and persevere through illness and natural disaster in the book “Flare, Corona”. 

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The Synopsis

Against a constellation of solar weather events and evolving pandemic, Jeannine Hall Gailey’s Flare, Corona paints a self-portrait of the layered ways that we prevail and persevere through illness and natural disaster.

Gailey deftly juxtaposes odd solar and weather events with the medical disasters occurring inside her own brain and body— we follow her through a false-alarm terminal cancer diagnosis, a real diagnosis of MS, and finally the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The solar flare and corona of an eclipse becomes the neural lesions in her own personal “flare,” which she probes with both honesty and humor. While the collection features harbingers of calamity, visitations of wolves, blood moons, apocalypses, and plagues, at the center of it all are the poet’s attempts to navigate a fraught medical system, dealing with a series of challenging medical revelations, some of which are mirages and others that are all too real. 

In Flare, Corona, Jeannine Hall Gailey is incandescent and tender-hearted, gracefully insistent on teaching us all of the ways that we can live, all of the ways in which we can refuse to do anything but to brilliantly and stubbornly survive.

The Review

I was absolutely moved and captivated by the heart and passion that the author relays her story of health battles and the pandemic. The use of story-driven, sci-fi, and dystopian genre writing styles to illustrate the author’s personal story was so remarkable and thrilling to see come to life on the page, and the humor and wit that underscores these apocalyptic-style poems made this a thrilling collection.

To me, the heart of this collection resides in the themes and imagery that the author utilizes in her work. The juxtaposition of the decay and darkness that surrounds humanity with the life and love that brings the light back into our lives was so remarkably moving, and the imagery that connects a brain scan to astronomical, and solar movements were both thought-provoking and heartfelt in its delivery.

The Verdict

Memorable, moving, and insightful, author Jeannie Hall Gailey’s “Flare, Corona” is a must-read collection of poems that speak to both the perils of health crisis and the hope that humanity draws from in times of need. The scope of the poems themselves and the creativity that they spark, and the imagery that the author’s poems bring to life made this a truly wonderful read. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

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About the Author

Jeannine Hall Gailey is a writer with MS who served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington. She is the author of five books of poetry: Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, Field Guide to the End of the World, the winner of the Moon City Press Book Award and the SFPA’s Elgin Award, and upcoming in 2023, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions. She also wrote a non-fiction book called PR for Poets to help poets trying to promote their books. Her poems have been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac and on Verse Daily; two were included in 2007’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She was awarded a 2007 and 2011 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize for Poetry and a 2007 Washington State Artist Trust GAP grant. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Ploughshares.

https://webbish6.com/

Apprenticed to the Night by LindaAnn LoSchiavo Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Author and poet LindaAnn LoSchiavo share a collection of poetry that explores themes of love, death, life, and everything in between in the collection “Apprenticed to the Night”.

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The Synopsis 

“Apprenticed to the Night” is a collection of 66 poems focused on mortality, betrayal, memory, trauma, and the bewilderment of loss as constantly shifting enigmas. It explores themes of life, death, childhood, trauma, family, and love. The book is divided into three sections: Youth, Maturity, and Beyond. Reviewers have called this collection a powerful and moving collection of poetry that is honest, insightful, innovative, and beautifully written. – – – – “Apprenticed to the Night” is available in hardcover, paperback, and a e-version from UniVerse Press (the poetry imprint of Beacon Books). – –

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The Review

This is a compelling and heartfelt collection of poetry. The poet does a remarkable job of taking readers on a metaphysical journey of sorts, traversing the realms of reality, memory, and thematic symphonies as each poem reflects both experiences and hardships respectfully. The imagery found in the author’s writing was quite powerful, packing an almost cinematic gut punch as each poem brought a clash of realism and lyricism to life on the page.

For me, the heart of this narrative collection of poems came from the thought-provoking atmosphere and the emotional heartbeat of the collection overall. The journey through themes of life, death, trauma, abandonment, womanhood, and more made the story of the author’s experiences come to life through each poem so artfully. 

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The Verdict

Memorable, heartfelt, and engaging, author LindaAnn LoSchiavo’s “Apprenticed to the Night” is a must-read collection of poems you won’t be able to put down. The heart and passion meld with the author’s creativity so naturally that readers will be drawn to this book over and over again. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating 10/10

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About the Author

Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a four time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, has also been nominated for Best of the Net, the Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars. She is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild.

Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely” (US: Wapshott Press, 2019), “Women Who Were Warned” (UK: Cerasus Poetry, 2022), Firecracker Award, Balcones Poetry Prize, Quill and Ink, Paterson Poetry Prize, and IPPY Award nominee “Messengers of the Macabre” [co-written with David Davies] (US: Audience Askew, 2022), “Apprenticed to the Night” (UK: UniVerse Press, 2023), and “Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide” (Canada: Ukiyoto Publishing, 2023) are her latest poetry titles.

In 2023, her poetry placed as a finalist in Thirty West Publishing’s “Fresh Start Contest” and in the 8th annual Stephen DiBiase contest.

LoSchiavo is a Prohibition Era historian and her Texas Guinan film won “Best Feature Documentary” at N.Y. Women’s Film Fest (Dec. 2021).

― ― links ― ―

https://linktr.ee/LindaAnn.LoSchiavo

https://universepress.net/product/apprenticed-to-the-night/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHm1NZIlTZybLTFA44wwdfg

portraits of red and gray: memoir poems by James Morehead Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Author and poet James Morehead take readers on a journey from childhood to adulthood, from Soviet Union era-Russia to the Canadian wilderness, Wyoming, and beyond in his book “portraits of red and gray: memoir poems”.

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The Synopsis

Take an unforgettable journey from the Cold War USSR to Savery, Wyoming, from the mountains of Tuscany to the peak of Yosemite’s Half Dome, from the Canadian wilderness to the beaches of Normandy. James Morehead’s (Poet Laureate – Dublin, California) acclaimed collection is built around a series of memoir poems that takes readers into pre-perestroika Soviet Union through the eyes of a teenager, from Moscow to Tbilisi to Leningrad (and many stops in-between). The striking cover, designed by Zoe Norvell, is based on a 1982 lithograph by Igor Prilutsky.

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The Review

This was such a moving and beautiful collection of poetry. The author does a remarkable job of using profound imagery that feels both relatable and memorable at the same time, and the varied pacing of each poem speaks to the uniqueness of the memories that make up the subject of each poem, speaking to a specific moment in the author’s life that added to their growth as a person.

To me, the author’s work really worked for the balance in the surface-level themes of life experiences in specific places with the deeper meaning of love itself. Each poem spoke not only to the location of the author’s experience, but the person that they spent that memory with, whether it was the boating trip with his father, watching his Italian grandmother-in-law bake, and so on and so forth. The details that went into each poem spoke to the experience and things around the author that resonated with the person he was with, speaking to the insightful nature of his experiences, even when the person he resonated with was his younger self.

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The Verdict

Memorable, thoughtful, and engaging, author James Morehead’s “portraits of red and gray: memoir poems” is a must-read collection of poetry. The emotional and moving connection the reader makes to the author’s experiences blends well with the imagery and vividness of each poem, making this a wonderful read. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

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About the Author

James Morehead is Poet Laureate of Dublin, CA. portraits of red and gray is his second collection, and he hosts the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast. James’ poem “tethered” was transformed into an award-winning animated short film, “gallery” was set to music for baritone and piano, and his poems have appeared in numerous publications. He is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Blog Tour Schedule:

April 18: the bookworm (review)

April 27: A Bookish Way of Life (review)

May 6: Anthony Avina’s blog (review)

May 9: The Book Lover’s Boudoir (review)

May 11: Impressions in Ink (review)

May 15: Review Tales by Jeyran Main (interview)

May 23: CelticLady’s Reviews (guest post)

May 25: Books Parlour (review)

May 29: True Book Addict (review)

https://jamesmorehead.com/

If the Sky Won’t Have Me by Anne Leigh Parrish Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Author Anne Leigh Parrish follows up on her acclaimed debut poetry collection with a sequel that delves into what it means to be alive in this complex world of ours in the book “If the Sky Won’t Have Me”. 

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The Synopsis

The poems in If The Sky Won’t Have Me weave a brilliant tapestry of the human condition, focusing on nature, the female experience, family drama, aging, politics, and regret. Images of water feature strongly, as do rebirth and regeneration, both physical and spiritual. A perfect sequel to the author’s debut collection, the moon won’t be dared, these poems expand and deepen our understanding of what it means to be alive in a complex world.

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The Review

This was the perfect collection of poems and simple yet empowering artwork. The author does an incredible job of capturing the imagination and the emotion that poems are meant to evoke, and the way each poem is able to really impact the author in a specific way allowed the song-like quality of each poem’s structure to really become melodic in nature.

To me, the heart of the book rested in the reliance on nature and morality as both conversation starters and imagery. The emotion and sparks of insight that each of these poems stirs within the reader help to elevate the almost narrative approach to the poems themselves. For instance, my favorite poem in this collection for me was “Like a Shade of Dawn”, and the way this spoke to me about the desire for change, for leaving behind the past and embracing the coming of the dawn was powerfully felt and utilized the nature motif expertly.

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The Verdict

Moving, passionately written, and engaging, author Anne Leigh Parrish’s “If the Sky Won’t Have Me” is a must-read poetry collection. The heart and thoughtfulness of each poem will speak to the quiet yet contemplative voice within us all, the empowering way the book speaks to women in particular, and the need to look at how people embrace life in this modern world of ours through the use of nature and morality will really stay with the reader long after the book ends. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

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About the Author

Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of nine previously published books: A Winter Night (Unsolicited Press 2021); What Nell Dreams, a novella & stories (Unsolicited Press, 2020); Maggie’s Ruse, a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2017); The Amendment, a novel (Unsolicited Press, 2017); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories (Press 53, 2011). Visit her website.

Wounded Hearts Take A Chance by Debbie Quigley Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Bookbaby.com helping independents – whether authors, publishers, musicians, filmmakers, or small businesses – bring their creative efforts to the marketplace.

A woman must open her broken heart up to the possibility of love once more in author Debbie Quigley’s “Wounded Hearts Take a Chance”. 

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The Synopsis

“It all started one fine summer’s day when a first-glance attraction walked into her yard . . .”

This little book takes you along the poetic, romantic path of a woman opening her broken heart to the possibility of loving again.

To do so, she must tear down the protective walls of aloneness she has built around herself, walls of safety thrown up in the wake of infidelity and betrayal.

Letting a man into her heart again, daring to trust and to feel love and passion once more, opening herself to the risk of suffering more pain, is a big leap . . . but it’s one worth taking, and one she’ll never regret.

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The Review

This was a quick yet profound collection of poetry. The author and poet do a spectacular job of crafting a collection that speaks volumes emotionally and lovingly in just a short compact read. The imagery and sparks that each poem brings to life echo the heartfelt emotions that the author hoped to relay to readers and inspire them. 

To me, what made this book really just sing was the balance of emotional depth and storytelling that each poem seemed to deliver. The author wrote this book to feel very much like a short film, capturing the fear, thrill, and hope that new love often stirs up inside us all. Yet on the other hand, the powerful message of overcoming heartbreak to accept love into one’s heart again came through as well and allowed the reader to truly connect to the author’s emotional journey which was both relatable and engaging.

The Verdict

Memorable, honest, and heartfelt, author Debbie Quigley’s “Wounded Hearts Take a Chance” is a must-read short collection of poetry. The depth and quality of each poem were equally balanced with the story and emotional journey that the poems collectively formed to keep the reader invested in this quick yet powerful read. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

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About the Author

Debbie Quigley, born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, is also the author of the poetry collection Wind Whispers. A retired healthcare worker, she lives in a small hamlet surrounded by nature and wildlife. She loves to garden. Debbie’s “whisper-art” poetry is simple and real, telling a story. She has contributed to Spiritual Writers Network publications, and her poetry can also be found on Author’s Den.

Our Wolves by Luanne Castle Review

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

The classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood gets a new take when poetry and perspective shine a light on Red and those she interacted with on that fateful night in author and poet Luanne Castle’s “Our Wolves”.

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The Synopsis

In Our Wolves, poet Luanne Castle navigates the timeless story of “Little Red Riding Hood” in a compelling collection of sharp, memorable poetry. Familiar tales are ageless for a reason. Their magic is that they can easily be transformed to explore subjects of abuse, danger, sexuality, self-sufficiency, and interpersonal relationships in a way that makes these challenging topics palatable to readers. Trying to find the reasoning behind Red’s traumatic adventure, as well as using it to comment on contemporary events, Castle creates taut narratives and sympathetic monologues to show how the story shapeshifts with the teller. Here, we hear from the wolf, the huntsman/woodcutter, Grandmother, townspeople, and Red herself. Not just a victimized or innocent child, Castle’s Red also appears in wiser (and sometimes older) incarnations that are knowing, rebellious, resilient, and clever. This technique subverts stereotypical conventions and shows that Red’s story “is not so very different from yours / and yours and yours and yours and yours.” Filled with atmospheric power, dynamic portrayals, and bright imagery, Our Wolves will haunt you long after you’ve returned from its woods.

Christine Butterworth-McDermott, author of The Spellbook of Fruit & Flowers

In this recasting of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, Luanne Castle’s wolves are not the wolves skulking in our imaginations. Her poems challenge our senses, bounce from view to view, shifting their focal points. Grandmothers and red-coat-wearing girls may or may not bear guilt. Indeed, Granny may be the Wolf. Or the Wolf may be a father, pulling down panties to slap bare skin. The story is told “to search / for who, not why. It’s all about blame.” Which is, of course, only one truth lurking within this fable. The poems in Our Wolves burrow under your skin and into your flesh. They don’t let go, no matter how you scratch; they’re unsettling, magical. Relentless. Unforgettable.

Robert Okaji, author of Buddha’s Not Talking

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“Perhaps you were wrong.” In these imaginative and evocative poems, expectations are subverted, and flat, centuries-old characters are brought to life in both amusing and startling ways. Castle tells the old story of Red Riding Hood from new angles and perspectives, creating a multitude of responses from the reader, eliciting from us everything from moments of cringing to laughter. Most interestingly, Castle subverts the predictable and achieves complexity by using an unlikely combination of forms and mixed modes–from the more traditional lineated lyric and narrative poems to the unexpected Haibun and Abecedarian, using every technique available to create this lively and memorable book. These poems invite us to confront what we take for granted and then let loose our own inner wolf to bite in and savor them all–one well-crafted word at a time.

Kimberly K. Williams, author of Sometimes a Woman and Still Lives

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The Review

This was a memorable and heartfelt collection of poems. The author does an incredible job of finding the right balance of storytelling through the poems themselves to tell this reimagining of such an iconic fairytale and highlighted the rich themes found within the poems with powerful imagery and insightful tones that kept the reader grounded in the magical reality they were weaving together. 

The heart of the author’s work rested in the moving themes the poems played with and the folklore that the author drew upon to weave this tale. The poems hit upon things like identity, staying true to oneself, honesty, and overcoming our fears in life, and the way the author was able to write these poems in a way in which the audience was able to see themselves in one form or another through these varied perspectives was memorable, to say the least. The way in which the reader is treated to the perspective of the Wolf, Grandma, and of course Red herself allowed for readers to connect more with the major players of this tale and the struggles each and every one of them held onto until the bitter end. 

The Verdict

Heartfelt, memorable, and captivating, author Luanne Castle’s “Our Wolves” is a masterful and engaging poem collection. The imagery and atmosphere that each pome conjures up and the rich dynamics each perspective brings to the narrative of Red Riding Hood made this a truly thoughtful and relatable collection that readers won’t soon forget. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

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About the Author

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press 2022) and Doll God (Aldrich/Kelsay 2015), which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Kin Types (Finishing Line Press 2017), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Our Wolves (Alien Buddha Press 2023) is her second chapbook. Luanne’s Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, and other journals.

Luanne blogs at Writer Site and The Family Kalamazoo.

https://www.luannecastle.com/