The chapbook A Hole in the Light marks the debut of Texas-based poet Lucas Jacob. Geographically, A Hole in the Light contains poems of and about North Texas-especially the natural and manmade environments to be found along the Trinity, Brazos, and Paluxy Rivers. The speakers of the poems, and the people in the poems, grapple with the ways in which unremarkable daily experiences can be transformed into sharpened moments of surprising awareness. Jacob brings the unexpected and the mundane together, capturing each experience, each moment in poems that remind the reader that one is both in and of the world and that life is at once scary and delightful. Lucas Jacob has had work in several dozen journals, including Southwest Review, Barrow Street, Chautauqua, and Anchor &amp; Plumes' Kindred, and forthcoming in various others, including Western Humanities Review. He teaches writing and administers readings and workshop events for young writers at Trinity Valley School.

A Hole in the Light

Lucas Jacob

Anchor & Plume

Cass Anne Marie came squalling into her mother's waiting arms, a mother who had known the hard edge of expecting after three previous stillbirths. A fierce winter crept over their small mountain community and took Cass Anne's life, but her mother-"cried her back"-crying so hard she brought her infant's soul back to the living, breathing world. The residents of the community believe this opened Cass Anne up to the devil so they shun her and her mama, protecting their families from the "devil child." In an effort to tip the cosmic scales in her favor, Cass Anne fills her days with small kindnesses for her unsuspecting neighbors. When she begins to receive omens of bad things to come, folks are certain the devil is using the child. Cass Anne isn't to be believed and it is only after tragedy strikes that the town is forced to see that omens can be a thing of beauty and a young girl can be an instrument of grace. With Pretty Omens, A. LaFaye has crafted a mesmerizing novel-in-verse inspired by the epic tradition and the myth of Cassandra that will transport you to a small Virginia mountain community where an ordinary girl becomes a hero. A. LaFaye is a writer, professor, mother of five, and wife. An associate professor of English at Greenville College, she is gearing up to launch their first MFA program in Multimedia Storytelling. She also teaches as a visiting associate professor in the graduate program in Children's and Young Adult Literature at Hollins University. LaFaye's other titles include: The Keening (Milkweed), Water Steps (Milkweed), and Worth (Aladdin).

Pretty Omens

A. LaFaye

Motherland is an examination of mothers, mothering, and impending motherhood. The majority of the poems in Motherland were penned in the wavering, wondering hand of a woman navigating her first pregnancy. These poems ask questions of the future and reflect on the past, they are a fervent search for instruction, for meaning, in the stories of mothers, grandmothers, and other mothers. An accessible and enjoyable collection, Motherland is at times sweet, anxious, dark, joy-filled, and raw. In essence, it's much like motherhood itself. Shannon J. Curtin is the author of File Cabinet Heart (Emerge Literary Publications, 2014). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Mama, Love Me, Love My Belly, Short, Fast, and Deadly, as Others, Vox Poetica, y'all'd've, and Muddy River Poetry Review. She lives in Portsmouth, Virginia with her husband, son, and dog. She holds an MBA, competitive shooting records, and her liquor. She would probably like you.

Motherland

Shannon J. Curtin

49 MILLION YEARS AGO, THE ANCESTORS OF MODERN WHALES LEFT THEIR TERRESTRIAL HABITAT TO EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN PERILS OF AN OCEANIC EXISTENCE. IN THIS NEW POETRY COLLECTION, JENNA LE REFLECTS WITH WIT AND LYRICISM ON THE WAYS THAT LAND AND SEA CREATURES ALIKE ARE DEFINED BY THEIR PREDECESSORS' IMMIGRANT NARRATIVES. IN DOING SO SHE WRITES FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES, INCLUDING HER OWN AS A SECOND-GENERATION ASIAN-AMERICAN, DAUGHTER OF VIETNAM WAR REFUGEES, AND PHYSICIAN IN THE MELTING POT OF THE BRONX. HERE IS A BOOK OF VERSE STEEPED IN THE AROMAS OF SEA SALT AND AMBERGRIS, BLOOD AND ANTISEPTIC, LOVE AND DEATH.

A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora

Le, Jenna

After So Many Fires

Jeremiah Webster