Book Launch - Ann Bracken & Patricia VanAmburg

Ann Bracken and Patricia VanAmburg will be joining us in-store on Friday, September 18th at 6:30pm to celebrate the release of their latest books, Trusting the Owl: A Poetry and Flash Memoir Collection and Wrapper: Poems for Package Earth. This event is free to attend and will include readings from each author and an audience Q&A, as well as a book signing. Copies of the books will be available for purchase at the event. We can't wait to see you there!

Trusting the Owl: Poetry and Flash Memoir Collection by Ann Bracken

Trusting the Owl, Ann Bracken’s new collection of poetry and flash memoir, offers readers an unflinching peek into her past. Bracken’s work leads the reader through experiences of her childhood in the girdled world of 50s femininity with all of its expectations of perfection and submissiveness. She reminds readers that “I am no stranger to this wilderness called time” as she explores coming of age in the 70s and struggling with first love, the disappointment of her ill-fated marriage, and later, episodes of unbridled bliss. Bracken wanders through her memories like an undaunted explorer who is “…longing for what is lost, yet holding hope like an umbrella against the storm.”

Ann Bracken worked in education for 22 years as a special educator, reading teacher, and a college instructor. Her writing credits include three poetry collections and a memoir entitled Crash: A Memoir of Overmedication and Recovery. She served for fifteen years as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review and co-facilitated the Wilde Readings Poetry Series in Columbia, Maryland. She regularly exchanges letters with incarcerated people to foster their use of the arts and offer support for their writing and advocates for a new paradigm of mental health care that is holistic, humane, and compassionate. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including Mad in America, Little Patuxent Review, and Gargoyle. Her poetry has been featured on Best American Poetry, and she’s been a guest on Grace Cavalieri’s radio show The Poet and The Poem. In her spare time, you can find Ann trying out new recipes, sewing and quilting, traveling, or spending time with her family and friends.

Wrapper: Poems for Package Earth by Patricia Van Amburg

The earth and her people come packaged. Earth comes in a wrapper of natural beauty- as well as wrappers of decay and death. Earth's people-born into wrappers of skin and family- acquire many additional labels. I have written these poems-in wonder for the beauty of- and regret for the damage we do-earth and her people.
Patricia Jakovich VanAmburg is a retired emerita from Howard Community College where she taught literature, creative
writing, and fine arts. She also worked on the editorial staff of Little Patuxent Review literary journal. Her previous chap books
include: Courted by Snakes and Swans (2005); Watching for Birds (2013); Refugee Heart (2022).