Published in 2017
60 pages
Kiki Petrosino is the author of two previous poetry collections: Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013) and Fort Red Border (2009), all from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, FENCE, Gulf Coast, Tin House, and online at Ploughshares. She is founder and co-editor of the poetry journal Transom, and Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.
What is this book about?
The poems of Witch Wife are spells, obsessive incantations to exorcise or celebrate memory, to mourn the beloved dead, to conjure children or keep them at bay, to faithfully inhabit one’s given body. In sestinas, villanelles, hallucinogenic prose poems and free verse, Kiki Petrosino summons history’s ghosts―the ancestors that reside in her blood and craft―and sings them to life.
“Petrosino has long been one of my favorite poets, working her linguistic sorcery through the heart’s palette with aching joy and stinging creativity. Her words kindle. Her poems are pure fire. Witch Wife might be her finest burn yet.” ―Amber Tamblyn
