Maureen Seaton & Carolina Hospital

Sweet World reveals a 21^st century life in the midst of an epidemic. It’s not about hating, battling, or even ultimately surviving the ravages of the epidemic as much as it is an homage to a life that continues even as the illness exists within the fabric of the body—the body, which is not victim, but vehicle for love, light, and growth. It is about a cease-fire with the disease while the soul steps up and takes the lead. Simply put, it’s about the challenges and ultimate joys of one woman’s life as she recreates herself in a time of breast cancer.

About the Author:

Maureen Seaton has authored twenty-one poetry collections, both solo and collaborative, most recently, Sweet World (CavanKerry Press, 2019) and Fisher (Black Lawrence Press, 2018). Her awards include the Iowa Prize and Lambda Literary Award, the Audre Lorde Award, an NEA fellowship, and two Pushcart Prizes. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry as well as numerous literary journals and anthologies. Her memoir, Sex Talks to Girls (University of Wisconsin Press), also garnered a “Lammy” and was recently reprinted in paperback (2018). With poet Neil de la Flor, she edited the anthology Reading Queer: Poetry in a Time of Chaos (Anhinga Press, 2018). Seaton is Professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of Miami.

Carolina Hospital’s new book of poems is a bellwether collection of a woman’s encounters with cultural fragmentation and assimilation, violence and recovery, isolation and acceptance, brutality and love. ”Hospital’s latest collection is a thrilling, important contribution to poetry, as well as Cuban-American literature, and the feminist conversation. Where suffering has occurred, Hospital remembers and honors; one could even say her book is a testament to not forgetting our own painful stories, with poetry acting as a bridge between trauma and healing.” (Laura Tivey review in Connotation Press, March 2019).