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The Ministry of Flowers.
Valley Press, November 2020 “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 post-pandemic society, one in which compassion as well as forgiveness (of both self and others) become the seeds of the gentler, fairer world we seek. Cover design by Jamie McGarry Cover illustration by the author |
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To find a new beauty.
Gold Wake Press, 2012 A bestseller on two “hot new release lists” on Amazon (Poetry and General Literature/Poetry)
"A refreshingly well-read debut from a talented poet.” Kristina Marie Darling. Read the full review at LitPub here. "rich with cool, intelligent and carefully crafted poems" Marge Piercy, The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems 1980-2010 With elegies that at once celebrate the dead and long for their touch, To find a new beauty is interested in just that—finding a beauty in the refuse, in what is left, in the hulking remains of grief." Roger Reeves, King Me, winner of the 2015 Whiting Prize "Slot’s work stands equal with that of Snyder and Oliver. With bewitching language, she pulls the reader into a gentle current of rolling imagery. Suspended within the flow of these pages, I was carried to a place of calm reflection." L.M. Browning, Ruminations at Twilight, Oak Wise, and The Barren Plain, winner of Nautilus Gold Medal for Poetry and Foreword Reviews‘ Book of the Year Award. |
academic essays / book publications
Inhabiting "La Patria": Identity, Agency, and "Antojo" in the Work of Julia Alvarez
SUNY Press, 2013 Andrea's essay “'Between the Scylla and the Charybdis': Remapping Subjectivity in the Dialogic Waters of Julia Alvarez’s 'The Other Side/El Otro Lado'” illustrates how the social fabric of dialogic interaction in Alvarez's long poem is driven by the intense subjectivity and structural/contextual power of the poetic form. By circling the power structures of speech and social class structures, Alavarez's poem not only gives voices to those who are without voice but, more importantly, awakens readers to the thought patterns that often invisibly limit ourselves and others. Drawing on theories by Chela Sandoval, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Homi Bhabha, the essay demonstrates Alvarez uses the “in-between” of cultures, classes, and languages to create insurgent emancipatory weaponry in her complex, multi-voiced work. Read through PROJECT MUSE or buy the book -- |
Dialogism and Poetry: Hearing Over
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 Andrea's essay "Dialogic Poetry as Emancipatory Technology: Ventriloquy and Voiceovers in the Rhythmic Junctures of Harryette Mullen’s Muse & Drudge" focuses on the complex movement of subjectivity in Mullen's work through the act of ventriloquy. By demonstrating how this play on voice--as it occupies numerous ideological positions--the essay who's how the poetic form can break down and break through the subtle forms of subjugation that continue to infiltrate social relationships and thought. Read the essay HERE OR buy the book here -- |