A new collection by Nettie Farris has been released from Dancing Girl Press. The Wendy Bird Poems continues the short-line style we saw in Communion (Accents Publishing, 2013). Here are some comments about the chapbook by Jeremy Paden and Katerina Stoykova-Klemer:

Indeed! I simply adore these slender poems. Farris knows how to spin and craft and shape the smallest of poems, how to turn the word as on lathe to shave away all that is unnecessary. It is not that she has grown accustomed to the diminished size, it is that she works with the tension between what is said and unsaid, with the tiniest of head nod and wink, and in the smallest of spaces she lays bare great psychological drama that opens up into insight. Do not think because the line is minimal and the poem short that you can skim across the surface of these words.

-Jeremy Paden,
Author of ruina montium
(Broadstone Books, 2016)

The Wendy Bird Poems is a truly unique book, and Nettie Farris is a truly unique poet. The collection encompasses a tender love story, so delicate, that it needs to be told not in sentences, not in words even, but in syllables. The content is distilled to such an extent that we need to be aware of the importance and the weight of every sound. Nettie Farris gives us a huge gift with this book – not only does she present a new kind of poetry, but also she teaches us to read in a new way, to see poems anew. Dear reader, enjoy this work, read it slowly and multiple times. These poems will teach you about sound, lineation, intention.

-Katerina Stoykova-Klemer,
Senior Editor/Founder Accents Publishing

Nettie’s book is currently available at the Dancing Girl Press & Studio website.