My New Book, Landscape with Womb and Paradox, to be published in 2025

“The Dark Garden” by Yves Tanguy

On July 23 at 5:56 PM, I received an email from Broadstone Books which began: 

“Dear Erica,

On behalf of the Broadstone Books acquisitions team, thank you for the opportunity to read your manuscript Landscape with Womb and Paradox, and for your patience with the time it has taken for us to respond to the great many submissions we received during our open reading period.”

And then those magic words: “I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for publication.”

The next day, I tested positive for Covid for the first time. It was, to say the least, quite a week.

The news of my book’s acceptance is a bright spot in what’s been, so far, a challenging year. In late December, my mother fell and broke her hip, which landed her in the hospital and then a post-acute facility, where she spent almost five months recovering. During those months, my family tried to figure out the best alternative for her. Still dealing with the effects of the stroke she’d had two years earlier and showing signs of dementia, she couldn’t move back to the apartment where she’d lived for the last twenty-four years.

Through a friend, I found an assisted living home for her near me. This necessitated moving my mother from California to Oregon, a complicated process involving finances, insurance, social workers, and wheelchair-assisted travel. We moved her safely to her new place in early May. On August 19, we celebrated her 87^th birthday with cake, presents, and her loved ones in person and on Zoom. She couldn’t stop smiling.

Arranging all of this has sapped my energy, both physical and creative. It’s been difficult to focus on writing, and too often, I find myself staring at my screen, waiting for something, anything, to appear. That easy flow of words I’ve taken for granted has slowed, like a car stuck in traffic. To quote Georgia O’Keeffe, “I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.”

And yet, the book! When I think about it, I get that giddy, excited feeling. I’m thrilled to be with the same publisher as some of the excellent books I’ve reviewed at Sticks & Stones: The Damage Done by Susana H. Case, Postcard Poems by Jeanne Griggs, In Those Years, No One Slept by Claudia Serea. I’ve been submitting versions of this book for several years, but the one Broadstone accepted had recently gone through a drastic editing process, including rearranging the poems in the book, taking some out and adding others, and a new title. 

That title, as well as the poem it’s take from, Landscape with Womb and Paradox, were influenced by the class I taught in 2023, “Beyond Reality.” In the class, we studied the paintings of the Surrealists. “The Dark Garden” by Yves Tanguy moved me in strange and disturbing ways, leading to the poem. You can read it at Two Hawks Quarterly.

Ekphrasis, or writing in direct response to art, has been an important part of my creative practice for many years. It’s led me to unexpected places in my exploration of how to connect poetry with other art forms. My journey started with a set of photographs by Edward S. Curtis, moved into video poetry, and continues with writing and teaching ekphrasis.

Thankfully, my bout with Covid was mild (but bad enough), lasting exactly two weeks. During that time, I slept, read novels, and worked on a few things. I was lucky—no one else in my family got sick. Thinking about the new book was a definite boost to my mood. 

My mother is doing well at her new place, and I visit her often. We spend time looking at the photo albums she made when I was a child. 

It’s amazing, how powerful an image can be.

If you would like to find out more about ekphrasis, you can read about my upcoming class, Exploring Ekphrasis: The Women, in which we will study the work of women artists from around the world.