Photo credit, from left: Lisa Beth Anderson; Dylan Champagne; uncredited
All three of us are poets and professors. We all also write prose. Our jobs rely on and live in words. And yet, there are no real words to describe our complicated emotions about this anthology. On the one hand, we are grateful that it exists. On the other, we are mortified that it exists. We are
pleased these amazing poems and responses are out there in the world; we are
horrified there are increased reasons for them to be in this book.
We feel similarly about the opportunity to write this essay. We are thankful Powell’s has given us this forum; we are saddened that just a few weeks ago there was another deadly shooting
in a church, making this anthology tragically relevant...