Sometimes the most complicated stories of our lives can be put into the shortest of forms. In this small book of poems Dennis Etzel Jr. recounts a fragmented chronology from his childhood to his fatherhood. Living their lives with love and integrity, Etzel's two mothers raised him together despite the status quo resistance they daily faced in Topeka, KS. Now the father of sons, Etzel's poems draw as much from his own memories as they do from the larger social context of marriage equality — and in bridging that gap between the personal and the political with lyrical grace and political conviction, Sum of Two Mothers is a riveting little book that is as much about growing up with two mothers, as it is about becoming a father who is raising his sons with a more inclusive — but equally protected — model of the world. —Kristin Prevallet, I Afterlife, Essay in Mourning Time

The Sum of Two Mothers

Literature & Fiction

Etzel Jr, Dennis

Poetry

ELJ Publications

"Ian Bodkin's haunted sequence, with its wounded and bewildered protagonist, Drunk, has something of the wordplay and tonal slipperiness of Berryman's Dream Songs. But the collection is much more than a mere homage. It is also impressive for its philosophical and semiotic reckonings and for a stance of stoical survivor hood that is ultimately the book's most notable accomplishment. This is very fine work indeed, and a splendid debut collection." David Wojahn

Every Word Was Once Drunk

Bodkin, Ian

A story so poignant and passionate that it only makes sense to tell it in the dramatic heart wrenching sputters that are these pomegranate poems. Don't think of it as a poetry collection--this is a memoir; the rawness of the situation can only exude in these small perfect bits of lyric. A journey you'll want to consume and then consume again. Magical. --Hildie S. Block, author of "People" and editor of the anthology Not What I Expected

Stronger Than Cleopatra

Jacqueline Jules

Winner of the 2015 Pioneer Prize for poetry, this premier collection of poems present a voice haunted by varying definitions. Complex, troubled emotions such as guilt, shame, and anxiety, are revealed, yet they work towards expressions of courage. The dead and the living are cajoled and accused, while others are provided a format through which they may be heard long after their mouths have closed.

According to the Gospel of Haunted Women

Judith Roney

Fingertip Scripture

Ian Bodkin

Lee Busby

The Pretty Machine

Melissa Carroll

Like a Compass in Her Bones

Kozlowski, Kristin

Literary

Good Catholic Girl

COONEY, MICHAEL

In the Beginning

Fekete, Zary

Contemporary

Boomerang

Cobb, Caelyn

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Books by ELJ Publications