BOOK DEAL: Exposed Nerves, poetry by Lucy A. Snyder
Raw Dog Screaming Press (RDSP) is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the poetry collection Exposed Nerves by Lucy A. Snyder, which will be released in the fall of 2021. It’s RDSP’s fifth book with Snyder but the first poetry collection they have worked on together. The poems, almost fifty of them, touch most of the genres, with a mix of introspective and emotional as well as playful pieces.
“I’m very happy to be working with Raw Dog Screaming Press on this collection,” Snyder continued. “It’s rare to find a publisher who has so consistently and competently championed and supported speculative fiction poets, and I know that they have provided the best possible home for this book.”
Exposed Nerves is a title that completely encompasses the varied pain within from traumas, identity crises, teenage angst, feminist fervor, and searching questions only the stars can answer. Sometimes the poetry feels dirty, as it twists in the dark recesses of life, then acts as a healing purge for the pain and ponder of love, loss, illness, and body horror, while also bringing hope. Snyder’s poems show the true spirit of a fighter.
Take, for instance, the last stanza of “Invisible Woman,” co-written with Gary A. Braunbeck:
could you rise like a firebird
from the cutting room floor
and say not this time
not again
I will make you see me
I will not be ignored
Fans of Snyder’s work will be reminded of what they already know about her writing (and what new fans will learn), which is that she never holds back her pen and continues to write through everything even when it seems impossible. For example, in “In Spite of It” she writes:
I want you to write, my friend.
If you can’t write for pleasure,
I want you to write for spite.
I want you to spill all the stories
you have in your fevered head,
and fuck all the shitty gatekeepers
and all the naysayers who whisper
that your unique joy is not enough.
And if you can’t find that joy,
I want you to attack the page
as if it’s been your cruel jailer
for 20 long, hard-labor years
and in the cell you just found
power and freedom in the form
of a nice, sharp, sturdy knife.
Teaming up with Snyder whose first collection of poetry, Chimeric Machines, received a Bram Stoker award, is a win and adds depth to the already extensive catalogue of unique, visceral, emotional poetry collections that RDSP has been building.
“We’ve enjoyed publishing Lucy’s short story collections so are very excited now to have a volume of poetry from her,” Jennifer Barnes, managing editor of RDSP said. “Her stories always make me see something in a new light and so do her poems. There’s a spareness and clarity in them that rings with truth.”
Raw Dog Screaming Press –
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