Dreamland for Keeps is a whisper in the dark giving voice to Elizabeth Short through poetry of erasure. Nichols’ poems return agency to the spirit of a woman so often sensationalized, examining Short’s many names, her impression forever etched on the American consciousness. For her, death is not the end of the story; in some ways the puzzle is never solved. (Porkbelly Press, 2018) » available in our shop
excerpt
WHAT DARKNESS BRINGS ME
When I ask,
the dark
offers me its
gifts.
A tree of eyes. A
hand in a jar,
its owner, lost.
I swallowed a
wedding ring,
once.
It tasted like
dust and tears.
Bone and gold.
about the poet
Sarah Nichols lives and writes in Connecticut. She is the author of seven chapbooks, including How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018), and Little Sister (Grey Book Press, forthcoming, 2018). Her third chapbook, She May Be a Saint (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016), was selected in 2017 for inclusion in San Francisco State University’s Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange Program. Her poems and essays have been published and are forthcoming in Five 2 One’s the Sideshow, Dream Pop, Memoir Mixtapes, Calamus, Rogue Agent, and the RS500.
about the cover art
The cover is screen printed in gold metallic ink on cover stock (purple or black). Each book is lovingly handbound and trimmed by hand. Custom red end-papers, featuring black dahlia (flower) illustrations, bookend the text block. These are printed in editions of 50, each chapbook numbered. Nicci Mechler is the printmaking & bookbinder: @wickedlittleheart on IG.
other books
How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
She May Be a Saint (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2017)
Edie (Whispering): Poems from Grey Gardens (Dancing Girl Press, 2015)
Porkbelly Press 