I am thrilled to announce that my poetry chapbook, Evening Body, is now available for pre-order at Finishing Line Press!! This little book is a collection of 22 poems that I’ve birthed and refined. It’s time to send them out into the world.

Today I want to share the title poem of the book, “Evening Body.” Fun fact: I wrote the first draft of this poem on the back of a receipt. I was in the car, and it was winter, and we were passing bare trees at dusk, and the first few lines just came to me. I still remember workshopping this poem with my poet group in my MFA program. I will forever be grateful to my fellow poets and professors who inspired me, guided me along, and have encouraged me on my writing journey. I also want to thank you, my blog readers, for your love, encouragement, and support. This poem was originally published by Parable Press Magazine in 2013.

Evening Body

This is the way the trees
look at winter dusk: dark
capillaries poking the sky, mere
silhouette, the violet texture

of bark dissolved to black
skeletons of ash, ready to collapse
with the slightest breath.
This is when limbs suspend, hold

still in a moment of weakness.
Who doesn’t wish for such
obscurity, the pink horizon bearing
the fragile body?

 

 

A note on the cover art: This is my own arm and tattoo. (Many thanks to Austin at Safe House Tattoo in Nashville.) I got this tattoo to represent this poem and my writing. You can read more about it in this post. I sent several different pictures to the publisher, including a few of actual winter trees from last February, and on a whim I decided to send a few pictures of my own tattoo. This is what the graphic artist came up with, and I love it.

You can read this and other lovely poems by purchasing the chapbook. Since this publisher pays in author copies instead of royalties, I can get a percentage of the print run to sell on my own. The volume of the print run depends on the number of pre-orders I receive, so I encourage you to pre-order a copy! Copies will ship in October.

GO HERE TO PURCHASE EVENING BODY

Since I love to read and I want to encourage you to enjoy books, too, I am offering a little incentive for pre-ordering my chapbook. Anyone who pre-orders Evening Body will automatically be entered into giveaway drawing for a Booklover’s Gift Pack! The Gift Pack includes:

Thirst by Mary Oliver (poetry)

 

 

 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (fiction)

(Read my review of this book here.)

 

 

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans (memoir)

(Read my reviews of this book here and here.)

 

 

$5 Starbucks gift card

 

 

 

In other words, I want you to have a cup of coffee and a few hours of good reading on me. All you have to do to enter your name into the Booklover’s Gift Pack drawing is let me know you pre-ordered Evening Body! You can leave a message on this post, contact me on Facebook or Twitter, or send me an email at karissa.k.sorrell@gmail.com. If you order 2 copies, you’ll name will be entered twice (and so on).

The winner will be announced on August 1. Be sure to come back to the blog that day to see the winner announcement!

(EDIT: GIVEAWAY HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO AUGUST 20!)

CLICK TO PURCHASE EVENING BODY