haiku at 5:38 a.m., by Emily Patterson

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

In haiku at 5:38 a.m., Emily Patterson renders a joyous and raw portrait of a woman’s postpartum experience. Featuring 24 poems—one for each hour of the day—the collection mirrors the characteristic unraveling of time during the earliest days, weeks, and months of new parenthood.

Each poem in this collection is marked by a candid tenderness, giving voice to fear and grief alongside delight. Through vivid fragments, Patterson creates a full portrayal—specific yet universal in its bearings. Poignant and accessible, haiku at 5:38 a.m. offers a balm for the new parent, recognition for the seasoned one, and an invitation to revisit its words again and again.

Emily Patterson (she/her) is the author of So Much Tending Remains and To Bend and Braid. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Spiritual Literature and appears in SWWIM, Sweet Lit, CALYX, North American Review, Rust & Moth, Sheila-Na-Gig, tiny wren, Mom Egg Review, and elsewhere. She was selected as a runner-up in the 2023 Sundress Publications Poetry Broadside Contest and as a finalist in the 2024 Sweet Lit Poetry Contest. Emily received her B.A. in English from Ohio Wesleyan University and her M.A. in Education from Ohio State University. She lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio and works as a curriculum designer.