Synopses & Reviews
Of all the losses we may be asked to bear, the murder of one's child must be the most terrible. These poems evoke that keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.
From "True Confessions":
Don't pity me:
I was too lazy to walk
up the stairs
to tuck her in at night.
When I brushed her hair
I pulled hard
on purpose.
And always
the sharp,
plaintive edge
on the rim
of the spoon
of my giving...
Review
"Readers will have to step outside of a familiar, comforting tradition of poetic grief while reading this book....To read [Slamming Open the Door] is to stand onstage with a writer who finds herself in the middle of a story in which she has been reluctantly cast." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Written with skill in tight, spare lines without sentimentality or melodrama, Bonanno launches readers through the experience, one that evokes a universal terror....A stunning first book." Library Journal
Review
"Spare, unflinching, and powerful, the poems in Slamming Open the Door move me to the bone. How does one say I love this book, which I wish never had to be written? Only one way: I love this book. I wish it did not have to be written." Thomas Lux
Synopsis
Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's heartrending autobiographical collection inspires both compassion for and awe of the human spirit.
Synopsis
Of all the losses we may be asked to bear, the murder of ones child must be the most terrible. These poems evoke that keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.
About the Author
Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno is a contributing editor of The American Poetry Review and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for two poems from Slamming Open the Door. She currently teaches English and Creative Writing in Pennsylvania.