The Book of Orion, by Darci Schummer

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

How do we protect those we love? How do we cope with witnessing someone we love leave? How do we forgive ourselves and others? In 24 poems, The Book of Orion chronicles addiction, grief, and forgiveness in the wake of a tragic loss.

Imagine two hands unclasping. Imagine the thin, iridescent veil separating the living and the dead. Imagine the echo of a familiar voice. Through both image-based and narrative poems, this collection seeks to capture the haunting nature of grief, how it colors both daily life and dreams, and how the people we love and lose continue to maintain a presence in our lives.

Darci Schummer is the author of the novel The Ballad of Two Sisters and the story collection Six Months in the Midwest, both from Unsolicited Press, and coauthor of the poetry/prose collaboration Hinge from broadcraft press. Her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, Folio, Jet Fuel Review, Jellyfish Review, Sundog Lit, Flash Frog, and Pithead Chapel, among several other journals and anthologies. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she served as the 2023 Artist-in-Residence at the La Pointe Center for the Arts in La Pointe, Wisconsin, on Madeline Island, and she is an assistant professor of creative writing at Colorado State University Pueblo. Connect with her at darcischummer.com.