Thank you very much NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC of Amanda Lovelace’s newest collection “the witch doesn’t drown in this one”!

Amanda Lovelace has done it again (as if that is a surprise): she has plumbed the deepest parts of her heart and shared her pain, her anger, her hope, and her love with the world. Her poems tell the stories of women: our struggles, our fears and heartbreaks, our triumphs. She speaks so we can be heard: “if she were a wolf, no one/ would ignore her howls.”

Lest you think women are irrational, or overreacting, know this: “She is not angry/ about the state of/the world anymore/ She is/ simply filled/ to the/ f*cking/ brim/ with sorrow. –but don’t worry, the witch doesn’t/ drown in this one”

She reminds her readers of their strength, even when they are at their breaking point: “If you’re going to cry, then cry/ once you’re finished, / come back to shore and get back/ on the battleground / there is still a war to win, witch.”
Keep fighting sisters, she says. Keep raging, and nurturing, and creating. We will not be pushed aside.