early bell idling

Write the book you need.  Friends, meet Malocchia. Malocchia refuses to believe it is cursed.  Malocchia is a collection of narrative & erasure poems that wander the haunted terrain of bloodlines, memory, & becoming. Taking its name from the feminized form of the Italian malocchio, or “evil eye”, this book invokes a matriarchal inheritance through which the speaker seeks to discern their own…

“Indeed, the poet gives us a glimpse into the effort and hard work it takes to emerge from trauma. The last poem of the collection, “dichroic” she begins, is a stunning conclusion. Dichroic, according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is, “the property of some crystals and solutions of absorbing one of two plane-polarized components of transmitted light more strongly than the other,” and “the…

LOBA POETRY SERIESMonthly Poet Features & Open MicSaturday, September 21 at 3 PM Join Ukiah Branch Library staff as we host poetry events in-person on the third Saturdays of each month at 3 p.m. This free event is open to both teens and adults. All are invited to share poems in any form or style or just listen to others.  On September 21, we welcome Ukiah Poet Laureate Emerita, Melissa…

If you have ever felt like you didn’t belong, this book is for you. Gutter Rainbows is about moving through trauma toward transformation. It’s about growing up in Brooklyn & forming alliances with sidewalks. About being a girl on the verge of something shattering. About the fur. These tender, gritty poems work with the language of rocks and minerals to tell a story of the relationship between…

My 2nd full-length poetry collection, Gutter Rainbows, is now available for preorder at Querencia! I started writing Gutter Rainbows while finishing my first book, field guide to autobiography in 2015, and it has been quite a journey to publication. It took years to brave the poems that wanted to come through, and during writing workshops with Bhanu Kapil & Hoa Nguyen, I began to muster the…

Read four of my erasure poems & an essay on the importance of reading books that terrify us at Cul-de-sac of Blood “If you came of age in the late 80s, someone may have sat you down in front of a tv showing Poltergeist (age 8), or slipped you a copy of Flowers in the Attic too young (age 10). Or, if you were fortunate enough to have a teenage babysitter who became so terrified during a viewing…

I’m so excited to reveal the cover for my 2nd full-length poetry collection, Gutter Rainbows! It has been a long road with this deeply personal book, & I feel fortunate that it travailed the necessary path to find its home with Querencia. It’s been a dream to work with Emily Perkovich, and I’m grateful to Emily and the other editors at Querencia. Never surrender the vision you have for your…

A recording of a delightful reading of above/ground press authors as we launched our new chapbooks!

A delightful reading of above/ground press authors as we launched our new chapbooks! Rob McLennan lovingly hosted us as we shared work from our chaps and had an enjoyable q&a. Julia Polyck-O’Neill, Amanda Deutch, Micah Ballard, Katie Ebbitt & Melissa Eleftherion~

abject suturesmelissa eleftherion$5 SHELL six little explosions“under a glass bell”how we’re taughtto containthe abjectlittle burst suturesin ammonite published in Ottawa by above/ground pressMarch 2024a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copyMelissa Eleftherion(she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills…

I don’t like the word pivot, and I really don’t like pivoting, but in hindsight, I realize I did a lot of it in 2023.  When my 2nd poetry book finally got accepted for publication after 4 years of sending it out, I made the difficult decision to decline the press’ offer after they refused to sign a contract & designed a mediocre cover. Eight months later, I received a 2nd offer for the book & I…

I’m looking forward to reading at Artaluma for the Petaluma Poetry Walk on Sunday, Sept. 17th! It feels a bit full circle as the first time I visited Petaluma was in 2004-5 for a special one-day writing workshop Diane (diPrima) was teaching at Geri DiGiorno’s house. Geri DiGiorno (Sonoma County poet laureate emerita) founded the Walk in 1996, and curated the series until she passed away in 2019.…

Hardcore Teen Girls & Two Queens Walk into a Lit Mag