Late Epistle
Publisher: Headmistress PressISBN: 979-8987763605Genre: Poetry, LGBTQ+Price: $15 (paperback)Winner of the 2022 Sappho's Prize in Poetry. In meticulously-crafted and deeply-felt poems that range from fixed forms to free verse to prose poetry, Late Epistle comes to terms with a life’s journey. The speaker considers the familial and personal history that shaped and the “unspeakables” that silenced her poetic voice, while standing wondering on the verge of an uncertain future.
Anne Myles is the author of What Woman That Was: Poems for Mary Dyer (Final Thursday Press, 2022). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and have been nominated for multiple Pushcart awards. She is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Northern Iowa and holds a BA from Bryn Mawr College, a PhD from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Raised in Manhattan and New York’s Hudson Valley, she presently lives with her pets in Greensboro, North Carolina.
You can find Anne Myles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her on her website.
Reviews
Late Epistle is a rare first book, one that radiates all the pleasures of poetry—sound, form, and figurative language, among others—but also one that evidences a life transformed by discovery. Read and marvel at Anne Myles’s prowess, then read again to be forever changed by her vulnerability and depth of feeling. This “dark and lustrous” book permits entry into the “not-yet-known” with miraculous clarity.
Natasha Sajé, author of "The Future Will Call You Something Else"
A sensual imagination informs these poems with startling images and line turns that astonish. I love the childhood narratives, the family sadnesses and secrets revealed, the tender, wise observations. Formally inventive, the poems that showcase a woman-loving-woman anchor the speaker in a story of self-invention and a sustainable life.
Robin Becker, author of "The Black Bear Inside Me"
Muriel Rukeyser asks, “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?” In this candid, emphatically visceral collection, Anne Myles speaks her truth with unflinching ardency, astonishing the reader with poems that are both masterfully crafted and strikingly forthright. Reading this book, I experienced the pure delight of a strongly female voice claiming its identity and purpose.
Martha Silano, author of "Gravity Assist"