Poet and longtime member of the Albany poetry community Michele Battiste has a brand new book of poetry – Waiting for the Wreck to Burn – available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and wherever you buy books.
Two towns–one unnamed, one called Ruination–share an uneasy relationship with the river that separates them. Within their borders, the aftermath of a murder lingers in unexpected ways. A marriage disintegrates. A waitress dies. A flood threatens.
With dark humor and a direct gaze, Battiste explores the inscrutable and the mundane, uncovering the potential for catastrophe in both. Foremost a book of sorrows, Waiting for the Wreck to Burn spurns any attempt at healing. Instead, the poems embrace the dislocation of grief and the absurdity of starting over.
Michele Battiste is the author of Waiting for the Wreck to Burn (Trio House, 2019), Uprising ( Black Lawrence, 2014), and Ink for an Odd Cartography ( Black Lawrence, 2009). She is also the author of several chapbooks, including Left: Letters to Strangers (Grey Book, 2014). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Memorious, and Women’s Studies Quarterly, among others.
Michele has taught poetry workshops for Wichita State University, the Prison Arts Program in Hutchinson, KS, Gotham Writers’ Workshops, and Teen Ink. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, she has received grants and awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, AWP, the Center for the American West, the Jerome Foundation, and the NY State Senate. She lives in Colorado where she works for The Nature Conservancy, raising money to save the planet.
Be sure to check out Michele’s website and follow her on social media (Facebook, Twitter) for more information on this book and upcoming readings and events.
