(l-r): Chelsea Bieker (photo: Wondra), Amy Leach (photo: Ingrid de Graaff Stuart), Charleen McClure (photo: Claret Castell)
Chelsea Bieker (RJFWA ’18), Madwoman (Little, Brown, September 2024)
“Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun.
“A gripping portrait of motherhood and motherloss, intimate terrorism and terrifying love, the reverberations of male violence through generations, and the brutal, mighty things women do to keep themselves and each other alive, Madwoman channels immense power, wisdom, and rage.”
Amy Leach (RJFWA ’08), The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations (FSG, August 2024)
“A book of mischief and improvisation, The Salt of the Universe answers fundamentalism of all kinds with rage, music, and delight. It asks questions that are urgent, impossible, necessary, and irresistible: Where does freedom live? Why does it sometimes feel so good to be told what to do? What on heaven and earth is the Apicklypse?
“These and other inquiries arise from Amy Leach’s experience: playing fiddle and piano (and sometimes the organ); her childhood in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and its many prohibitions (coffee, dancing) and emphasis on the apocalypse. After listening to thousands of sermons from a variety of pulpits, here Leach is offering one of her own. She borrows the words of an old hymn, and says: ‘This is my story, this is my song.’ The Salt of the Universe argues against argument, and against restrictions of all kinds and their limiting effect on our humanity. In this whirlwind of linguistic cartwheels, philosophical shenanigans, and praise songs to the cosmos, Leach reminds us: we must run toward mischief, music, love, the wonders of nature, and the wild joys of all that we don’t yet know.”
Charleen McClure (RJFWA ’20), d-sorientation (BOA Editions Ltd., September 2024)
“Charleen McClure’s d-sorientation wanders the landscape of loss with a weathered eye and a clenched fist. Delving deep into personal hauntologies, McClure’s speakers are dislocated—their observations and interrogations are quietly desperate as they navigate history, relationships, and dig for their roots. The lexicon of McClure’s poetry is one of intimacy and outrage, one that challenges the reader to consider their own belonging.
“Through bold lyric poems that beat with brutality yet glow with softness, McClure’s debut collection is a compass, pointing the reader towards reclamation.” For more news about our award winners.