Leanne was a recovering poet when we met. She'd stopped writing poems for multiple and complicated reasons.
She had to pay the bills; writing poems per se has never been financially sustainable for anybody ever, so she was burning out teaching too many school residencies. Good poems seemed most reliably to come when she felt really weird and messed-up, then pushed further to explore that direction.
She does not miss the actual life of being a poet.
But she was well-regarded, with a career that lasted maybe ten years, and published many poems, some in small ephemeral publications, some in big mainstream magazines ranging from Esquire to Cricket.
Then she stopped.
She wrote fiction for awhile, listening to harp music as she wrote. Then she got a harp, and she hasn't written since.
Last winter she found some of her poems -- typewritten! how quaint!-- in a cardboard box under a big pile of other stuff, and thought "Oh yeah, I remember these." She started reading, thought, "Geeze, these are pretty good." She sent them to some poets she likes and respects, just to be sure, and they agreed.
So now they're a book. We're publishing them the same way we put out albums, under our own imprint, "Eastern Coyote Press."
There may be more books in the future. This one has turned out well. We should have a review or two by the time the next newsletter rolls around. Meantime, here's the blurb Burlington poet David Huddle wrote for us:
"The bold passion, brash honesty, sharp wit, and superb crafting call to mind the work of Edna St.Vincent Millay. These strong and accessible poems will wake you up!
