Blackbird Whitetail Redhand is a book of chaos, transformation, and all the little possibilities tangled beneath the night clover. It is a simultaneously tumultuous and quiet narrative of bodily autonomy and the sacrifices needed to achieve it. These are poems rattled with the snapping of bear traps and the sharp, tangy bite of an ax kissing the trunk of a tree. Lusby leaves you asking: is she the sweet flesh of the fruit fruit or the sharp teeth? Listen for cloven feet over the thicket. If you catch sight of her, marvel at her mottled heart. Be careful not to make a sound, “she’ll move like scattershot” if you do. (Porkbelly Press, 2018) » available in our shop
excerpt
about the poet
Lindsay Lusby is the author of the chapbook Imago (dancing girl press, 2014) and winner of the 2015 Fairy Tale Review Award in Poetry, judged by Joyelle McSweeney. Her poems have appeared most recently in North Dakota Quarterly, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Third Point Press, Sugar House Review, The Lumberyard, Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. With Jehanne Dubrow, she has co-edited two poetry anthologies from the Literary House Press: The Book of Scented Things (2014) and Still Life with Poem (2016). She is the Assistant Director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House at Washington College, where she serves as assistant editor for the Literary House Press and managing editor for Cherry Tree.
about the cover artist
artist » Nicci Mechler
instagram » @wickedlittleheart
Nicci Mechler splits her time between handbinding books, spinning tales, and drawing girls with inky tattoos. Her work appears in various magazines, anthologies, & chapbooks. Nicci runs Porkbelly Press, a feminist, queer-friendly micro press, edits the lit mag Sugared Water, & serves on the board of Cincinnati arts nonprofit Tiger Lily Press. You can find her on instagram: @wickedlittleheart.
Each cover is inked & pressed on a Vandercook Proof Press at Tiger Lily Press, using vintage moveable type, mixed wood & metal. The type is set by hand, locked on the press, and inked with a hand-brayer for each impression. Cover stock colors vary, but most are about 80#. Nicci also binds these by hand, using a Japanese stab binding technique.
bibliography
Bramble & Thorn (Porkbelly Press, 2018), Faerie Magazine, Fairy Tale Review: The Ochre Issue, The Feminist Wire, North Dakota Quarterly, & The Wolf Skin.
books from other presses
Imago (dancing girl press, 2014)
reviews
- Sally’s review at Goodreads.
Porkbelly Press 