What the Willow Said as It Fell - Paperback

by Andrea Scarpino (Author)

This book-length poem by the current Poet Laureate of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Andrea Scarpino, asks the reader to sit with and inside the body's many losses, to grow comfortable and restless in its vagaries, and to acknowledge the myriad ways the body shapes and informs our lives. Incorporating found poetry, including from her own medical records, and the ash and willow tree as mythological figures, Scarpino writes with lyric intensity from a place of resistance and questioning as she tries to describe, understand, and record chronic pain as a growing epidemic.

Author Biography

Andrea Scarpino is the author of the poetry collection Once, Then (Red Hen Press, 2014), and the chapbook The Grove Behind (Finishing Line Press, 2009). She received a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, and an MFA from The Ohio State University. She serves as Poet Laureate of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (2015-2017) and has been published in numerous journals including The Cincinnati Review, Los Angeles Review, PANK, and Prairie Schooner. She lives in Marquette, MI.