Our first chapbook in several months has been a long time in the works. When we first encountered Soft Animals by Elizabeth Shvarts, it was early Fall 2023. I was taken by the youthful, but also sage and informed, optimism that colors these pieces. Elizabeth is an accomplished poet from Staten Island, NY, most notably as the 2022 NYC Youth Poet Laureate. She exerts confident command of language, imagery, and emotion as well as writers decades her senior.
From “Mango cube epilogue”:
“mother’s spider web fingers wicker thin white wisps pluck a slice of
strawberry / she always knows just what to say meaning / what not to say /
when she says it doesn’t lick her lips / dabs a charmin roll / she chances
cherry picks clucks chuckle . . .”
Available, finally, on the Titles page. Pick up a copy now!