Knowing Is a Branching Trail, by Alison Hicks

 

Knowing is a Branching Trail, by Alison Hicks

Coming September 2021!

You are Invited to the Book Launch: Register Today!

September 24, 2021, 6:00pm CST/ 7:00pm EST

ISBN: 978-1-7362232-6-0

Retail: $16.99

September 2021, Meadowlark Press

Knowing Is a Branching Trail is a poetic investigation of the many ways in which we know and come to understanding. In this collection of poetry, selected winner of the 2021 Birdy Poetry Prize, by Meadowlark Press, the poems engage with the work of thinkers and artists, from Charles Darwin and Samuel Beckett to Margaret Atwood and the anonymous paints of the Lascaux caves.

Themes range from pandemic and illness, childhood and parenting, observing and engaging with the natural world, and creating art. Poems in the book have previously appeared in Poet Lore, Blood Orange Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, and Vox Poetica, and other journals.

In this book, we witness an artist’s pause, an extraction of poetry from the ordinary beat of life.

Author Bio:

Alison Hicks is the author of poetry collections You Who Took the Boat Out and Kiss, a chapbook Falling Dreams, and a novella Love: A Story of Images. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Gargoyle, Permafrost, and Poet Lore, among other journals. She was named a finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose Prize by Smartish Pace; was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Green Hills Literary Lantern; and has received two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. She graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College, and holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. In 1996, she founded Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio to support writers in the development of their individual voices and practice of their craft through community-based workshops and private consultation. With Elizabeth Mosier and Thérese Halscheid, she co-edited Prompted, an anthology of work from the first 13 years of the Wordshop Studio. She lives in Havertown, PA with her husband, Charles Greifenstein.

Praise For:

“Knowing is a Branching Trail captured my attention. I read in search of moments that create a soft pause in me. Time given back to me that allows me to sit with feeling, safely and freely. There were voices in the work that transitioned from stranger to companion. It felt as if we shared an understanding. We feel much more about life than we can ever understand about life. When a poetry book can share and create that kind of space for a reader, it is worth embracing. I felt less alone with this book.”

–Huascar Medina, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2019-21, Un Mango Grows in Kansas

 

“​​. . . a book of both grief and affirmation: grief for all we’ve lost and are losing on this green earth and affirmation of our mysterious mortal moments. With clarity, precision, and wit, these are poems that not only describe but usher in such moments, offering us a necessary space for reflection and contemplation.”

–Ethel Rackin, author of The Forever Notes, Go On, and Evening, Professor of English, Bucks County Community College

 

“Alison Hicks finds magic in everyday things: dog hair in a bird’s nest, how to finger the viola so it sounds like the human voice. Her poetic lines are trim; every word almost glows. You too will love this book, how it sheds light on your life, on every life.”

–Kevin Rabas, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2017-2019, More Than Words  

Knowing Is a Branching Trail, by Alison Hicks

$16.99

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