Sometimes, in These Places

By Rebecca Watkins

What happens when poetry, “rises off the cracked surface of grief?” Rebecca Watkins explores both the grief and what rises in her newest collection, SOMETIMES, IN THESE PLACES. Through her thematic exploration of drug addiction, poverty, reticent religion, loneliness, and family, there is, throughout this collection, a frank dialogue that deftly puts us in the dirt, without letting us get grimy. The smooth motion and gentle imagery feels both deeply personal and wildly relatable, tackling dark concepts with sophistication and grace.
If feels as though Watkins wants to let us into her house, watch with her all the dark news stories of the day, and then let us leave without solving any of the world’s problems. She doesn’t tell us it’s all going to be alright, or that there’s hope in the world, she doesn’t have a moral to the story. Rather, she looks at us square in the eye and says, “this is the way things are.” Or, in her own words, “I see no footprints in the sand but my own.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unsolicited Press
• Release date: Sep 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370604791

Rebecca Watkins

Rebecca Watkins earned an M.F.A. in Poetry from the City College of New York and has been teaching writing and English as a Second Language at the college level for eight years in the Greater New York area. She has created and led poetry workshops in the public schools as well as smaller writing workshops for adults, and she is currently an editor for River River Literary Journal. In 2015, she was awarded a writing residency in Honduras and taught poetry at an orphanage and bilingual school. Rebecca has been published in The Promethean, The Red Mesa Review, Poetry and Performance, Anderbo and the SNReview among other literary journals. Currently, she is earning a Master’s of Science degree in English Education from Lehman College. Besides her background in education and writing, she has also lived and worked on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, became a certified yoga instructor in Colorado, and worked on organic farms in Ohio and Georgia. Rebecca’s first full-length poetry book Sometimes, in These Places will be released by Unsolicited Press in September 2017.

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