Librería Samer Atenea
Kálamo Books
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
WINNER OF THE 2021 OLEB BOOKS POETRY PRIZEFace Up: A Collection of Outlaw Poems is a volume of unmistakable power. Defying social expectations, Suzanne Nielsen writes 'I was born in the mid-fifties with fists for hands because / in utero / I knew life wasn’t fooling around.' As she explores recurrent themes of physical illness, depression, and addiction, she demonstrates self-awareness gleaned from a life lived fully.Suzanne Nielsen’s poems are peopled with wry survivors attending to their lives with purpose and humor. A newly sober friend will 'jingle his medallion in his pocket / and mimic a canine sense of direction.' An adult navigating clinical depression will 'climb into bed wearing . . . street clothes that haven’t seen the streets for weeks.' Relationships form in unexpected ways. Bertha from the Midway 'swore to sit on them, / and I swore to watch her back, / and we became best friends for those ten days.' In these poems of tenderness and grit, sorrow is always accompanied by wonder.