Cat Russell Book Launch and Review

From the Akron Beacon Journal (3/20/2019):

Everyday life is the source for the poetry in Cat Russell’s collection Soul Picked Clean. The provocative title of her opening poem “Why I Can’t Tell You About My First Time” refers to her first library visit, which Russell can’t recall but which instilled in her a lifelong love of reading, leading to visits to high school and college libraries. The delicate “Urn” depicts the poet’s mother seated in her “tastefully decorated office” selecting a cloisonné urn to contain the ashes of her husband, to keep him close by.

“Panic” ably describes the uncontrollability of a panic attack and how it feeds on itself, and “Gathering” the prosaic childhood memory of Russell’s father and his friends relaxing poolside with beer and chips.

Some of the poems were previously published.

Soul Picked Clean (89 pages, softcover) costs $12 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Ave., Parma 44134.

Cat Russell will be joined by Pittsburgh poets Jen Ashburn (The Light on the Wall) and Jason Irwin (A Blister of Stars) at 7 p.m. Saturday [3/30/2019] at Mac’s Backs, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights.

https://www.ohio.com/entertainmentlife/20190320/local-books-stories-of-world-war-ii-poetry-about-everyday-life-events-and-signings