Dr. Andrea Witzke Slot​
is an award-winning London-based author and artist

Andrea's newest book, 
The Ministry of Flowers 
is now available from
​Valley Press, The Poetry Book Society, 
Amazon UK and Amazon US

“Between My Country — and the Others --
There is a Sea --
But Flowers — negotiate between us --
As Ministry.”
                                                 — Emily Dickinson

As the world grapples with the tragic human cost of the global pandemic and its aftermath, the need for kindness and gratitude has become more important than ever. The Ministry of Flowers is in many ways a book for our times, one that offers hope in a changing world. The poems call into stark relief the brevity of human life, while also emphasizing the urgent need to connect with others and offer acts of kindness as a way of healing and moving forward.
Taking its title from an Emily Dickinson poem, the book explores how flowers, both real and metaphorical, are at the heart of a kinder world. With a strong ecological focus, the poems celebrate nature’s continual ministry in our lives and highlight the need to respect the ecosystems that sustain us. The Ministry of Flowers speaks eloquently to a society in need, in which compassion as well as forgiveness (of both self and others) become the seeds of the gentler, fairer world we seek.

‘A truly compelling and original work.’
— John Sibley Williams

‘These poems will break your heart but leave you feeling uplifted, more grateful to be alive.’
— Faisal Mohyuddin

‘A collection that will resonate long after you have turned the last page.’
— Fiona Bennett

‘I’d begun to think that no poetry could reach me this year … I am, gratefully, shaken.’
— Valerie Wallace

‘A compassionate recorder of our fallible bodies, broken hearts and enduring loves.’
— Tamar Yoseloff

‘Poignant hymns to the transformative nature of life’s experiences. Uplifting, intelligent and immensely engaging.’
— Vanessa Gebbie

‘These poems reach right in and keep the glow of humanity burning. Incredible writing … they take my breath away literally, invoking more senses than I thought I had.’
— Hafsah Aneela Bashir

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Winner of Able Muse and Fiction International fiction prizes, Andrea Witzke Slot is author of two poetry collections,To find a new beauty (Gold Wake Press 2012) and The Ministry of Flowers (Valley Press 2020), a collection which had been shortlisted for Eyewear Press's Beverly Prize and Black Lawrence Press's Hudson Prize. She has taught and mentored students ages 3-83; she was a primary teacher in the UK in the 1990s, and then taught at Collin College in Texas as a full-time faculty member while earning her PhD and, upon earning her PhD, joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While in Chicago, Andrea worked as an editor with Rhino Poetry and as the book reviews editor at Fifth Wednesday Journal. Andrea now lives London, where she is a contributing artist with Fiona Lesley's award-winning Poetry Exchange and works daily to capture the temporal beauty of the human and natural worlds through words, paint, piano and photography. A Hawthornden Fellow in 2019, Andrea is currently working on a novel and a forthcoming collection of art. 

Andrea earned her PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas, where her study focused on poetry and social change with a special interest in poetry that incorporates distinct voices and varying ideological perspectives, Her doctoral chapters on Harryette Mullen and Julia Alvarez have been included in two academic anthologies used in university classrooms: Dialogism and Poetry: Hearing Over, published by Palgrave Macmillan and Inhabiting "La Patria": Identity, Agency, and "Antojo" in the Work of Julia Alvarez  by SUNY Press.

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Watch the online launch of The Ministry of Flowers here, where various actors, poets and and creatives read from the book. □

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Andrea's short stories have won prizes with Able Muse and Fiction International and her poetry has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and for GOSS183's Independent Best American Poetry Anthology. Other work has placed as finalist, honourable mention, or runner-up in over a dozen competitions in both the US and the UK, including: 
​

• A Room of Her Own's Clarissa Dalloway Book Prize, one of two finalists for a first novel, selected by Kate Gale

• The University of Louisville's Calvino Prize, finalist for the short story Where our hands, like Memories rest in the night, selected by Robert Coover and later published by Stand Magazine
• The Reynolds Price Award in Fiction for the short story Proximity, published by Fictive Dream

• Two Tupelo Quarterly's Open Prose Contests, The Unreliable Patient, selected by Matt Bell as a runner-up, and Ode to the Stairs, selected by E.J. Levy as a finalist/honourable mention

• Meridian's Flash Fiction Contest, for the prose poem Lymphatic, published in Mid-American Review. 
• Black Lawrence Press's Hudson Prize, book finalist for a poetry collection which later became The Ministry of Flowers, published by Valley Press.
• Eyewear Press's Beverly Prize, shortlisted for the poetry collection which later become The Ministry of Flowers, published by Valley Press.
• Arts & Letters Unclassifiables Contest, for the story The Wall, published by Litro Magazine

• Mid-American Review's Fineline Contest for the prose poem ​​Panoply, published in Mid-American Review and the first poem in The Ministry of Flowers. 

• Southeast Review's Gearhart Poetry Prize for a long poem on social justice selected by Barbra Hamby and published in Southeast Review.
• Orison Anthology Awards, semi-finalist for a group of poems
• River Styx Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest for a group of three stories
• Sean Christopher Britton Memorial Award in Poetry, Second Place for a series of poems later published in To find a new beauty

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