Upcoming Book: Little Graveyards (Roadside Press)

I have been writing this book of poems since I started my nursing career in 2004, though the bulk of these poems comes from my time in the ER. I had always used writing as a place to let loose all the things I have seen in the world and there is no more important time to do this when you are surrounded by death and trauma. I had always meant to keep them to myself, maybe self-publish the collection so I could skip down nightmare memory lane, but something inside me said it would be important to share.

This last year I had just about given up on writing. I don’t say this for sympathy or the need for anyone to convince me otherwise. I was going through some shit mentally and emotionally. My output a year is normally 100-200 poems, but in the last two years, I’m lucky if I wrote 50. But what I have gained back is some freedom in my mind and the space to do art, and to begin to love myself. After decades of living under someone else’s rules and regulations, I decided to find out the own parameters of how I live my life.

In the midst of all this, Roadside Press had an open call for chapbooks…bringing back the 4×6!! If you know me, you know I love a small book. I thought about this collection as a stack of photographs you might leaf through, all the poems creating pictures in your mind. So I got off my lazy butt and cleaned up the collection, dusted off my editing hat, and went to work.

Michele is an amazing editor to work with. She prides herself on making a great looking book and she puts up with my eccentric need for details to be just right. She isn’t afraid to tell me when something needs changing, she pushes me to find the hard things and bring them to light. The cover of this book isn’t the original one, but it is the right one.

If you are so inclined to keep poetry alive and well in the world, you can pre-order my book “Little Graveyards” here. I thank you for considering supporting me and Roadside Press.

Be kind to each other. Read. Write. Dance in your underwear. Smile at strangers. Support small press writers and their publishers. Shop local.

Aleathia