Return To Sender, by Britt Trachtenberg

Poetry, chapbook, 48 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Return To Sender discusses difficult subjects that are inadequately addressed in society, such as the mental health of LGBTQIA+ people. These topics are mainly addressed through nature imagery and literary devices such as repetition and irony. Furthermore, many poems are told from the first person perspective and are written to another person. This creates an opportunity for the poems to be in conversation with one another and gives readers a more personal and unique experience. It should be noted that many of the poems also rely on long stanzas or indentation to show the intensity of these instances.

Many protagonists in the poems are biblical or contemporary women who are rebelling against their own narrative or society. This is accomplished through crossing out lines, negating lines, and referencing familiar stories while changing the endings. Moreover, writing the poems in this chapbook was therapeutic for the author because she had the opportunity to indirectly express her own struggles with mental health on the page. The poet hopes that the pieces in this book will both challenge the reader’s thoughts and give the reader an opportunity to identify with various speakers or situations in the poems.

Britt Trachtenberg is a poet from Long Island, New York. Her favorite topics to write about include mental health and nature. Previous publications of her poetry include issues of Train River Poetry, Fine Lines, and Progenitor Art and Literary Magazine. When Britt is not reading or writing, she can typically be found exploring nature or playing violin. Return To Sender is her debut collection of poetry.