Synopses & Reviews
Passionate, edgy, funny, and profound,
The Hell With Love is for anyone who has ever suffered the pain of breaking up and everyone who believes in the unique power of poetry to console and transform.
We've all been there...probably more often than we'd care to admit. Interpreted by a pair of wise and witty editors, these poems make up a one-of-a-kind collection that helps you through the classic stages of heartbreak. From John Donne to Margaret Atwood, from Pablo Neruda to Gwendolyn Brooks, here are poems that dig into the hurt and anger, poems that bring comfort and perspective, and poems that encourage you to get over your ex and move on.
Review
"Those looking to poetry to ease a recent breakup won't have to thumb through painfully irrelevant odes to joy any longer....Predictable selections are balanced out by a few eccentric, perhaps witty curatorial decisions..." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The greatest anthology of poetry I have ever read...it reminds me why I fell in love with poetry in the first place." Andrew Carroll, Director of the American Poetry and Literacy Project
Review
"If there was ever any doubt that love stinks, this expertly-selected trousseau of dirty laundry and broken trust...makes a strong case in the affirmative." Lucinda Rosenfeld
Review
"Whether you're miserable or not, The Hell with Love doesn't just fix your misery....From the first page you feel love again, just not the kind that kills you." Matt Klam
Synopsis
Poems on such themes as self-hatred, real hope, sadness, and moving on, written by Margaret Atwood, Louise Gluck, John Donne, Gwendolyn Brooks, Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Jane Kenyon, Galway Kinnell, Robert Frost, and others, are featured in this sassy and heart-wrenching collection.
Synopsis
Smart...funny...insightful... The Hell With Love is a sassy and heart-wrenching collection of poems that expresses the anger, hurt, and depression of loss; that asks why, analyzes rifts, and strives for explanation; and that builds resolve, envisions a future, and revels in the present. Poets include Margaret Atwood, Louise Gluck, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sharon Olds, Robert Frost, and many more.
About the Author
Mary D. Esselman grew up in Louisville, KY, the fourth of seven children (and the first of two girls). She earned her bachelor's degree in English at Georgetown in 1984, and her master's degree in English there in 1987, after she spent a year teaching English in Belize. She has taught English at The American University, Marymount University, the United States Senate Page School, and Georgetown University. She currently works as a teacher and writer in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her husband, Greg.
Elizabeth Ash Velez is a writer, poet, teacher, and mom who lives and works in Washington, DC. She teaches English and Women's Studies at Georgetown University and is the academic coordinator of the Community Scholars Program there. Velez also writes regularly for People magazine. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi. She has a BA in philosophy from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, an MA in Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MA in English from Georgetown University. Velez is the mother of two sons, Stephen (31) and Nicholas (19). Stephen teaches third grade in the DC public schools, and Nicholas is a first-year student at the University of Chicago. Velez and her husband, Larry, poet and speechwriter, have been married for 32 years.