Don't Worry About Me, by M.R. Mandell

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Don’t Worry About Me is a lyrical narrative of a girl growing up in a volatile, often violent, sometimes loving family, often on the edge of financial and emotional destruction.

Her poems tell stories of how she navigates her fractured world, with moments of tenderness between mother and daughter, juxtaposed with the harsh realities of surviving a household with a father full of desperation and rage.

In M.R. Mandell’s debut chapbook, her poems span the west, from Texas to California, exploring the empty corners of a conservative small town, to the hopes, fantasies, humor, and darkness of Los Angeles, the city she ultimately finds her dreams.

"M.R. Mandell’s sharp turn of phrase stuns the reader awake. Specificity and sincerity paint the prettiest pained pictures. Excellent, elegant, yet accessible, this chapbook is one hell of a read."

—C.E. Hoffman, author of Losers and Freaks

"Transporting, evocative and very moving. It put me in a place I have not been in a world different from my own so I could be there, feel it, and understand. It is full of surprises, written by a true poet."

—G. Neri, author of Concrete Cowboy and Safe Passage

M.R. Mandell (she/her) is a poet based in Los Angeles. She lives by the beach with her muse, a Golden Retriever named Chester Blue, and her longtime partner. You can find her work in JAKE, Roi Fainéant, sage cigarettes, Anti-Heroin Chic, Stanchion Zine, Fine Print, Maudlin House, Unbroken, Five Minutes, Writers Resist, The McNeese Review, and others.