Mo(u)rning Rituals

Heidi Slettedahl's collection Mo(u)rning Rituals offers us a remarkably powerful combination of poetic craft and tragic eloquence in its evocation of childlessness. This collection will haunt you with the ghosts of children who never were, of lost selves, of lives that will never be lived, portrayed with unflinching courage. It packs an extraordinary punch with its honesty and beauty of languages. By any standard, this collection is an extraordinary achievement.

-Susan Castillo Street, Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor Emerita, Kings College, London

Heidi Slettedahl writes powerfully emotional poems in a voice that, if not exactly calm, is wise and assured. Many deal with the agony of repeated loss and the figure of the absent child. The poems, never gaudy or dressed in rhetorical finery, speak in plain language directly from experience. Her short poems are deft, sometimes darkly funny. These are strong poems, often facing up to pain, but never self-indulgent, without a hint of falseness or pretense.

-Steve Klepetar, Professor Emeritus, St. Cloud State University; author of Speaking to the Field Mice, Family Reunion, The Li Bo Poems and others

Heidi Slettedahl's Mo(u)rning Rituals is a frank and deeply affecting collection. The poems housed within its covers are rife with the terrible specifics of unrelenting loss. In the very first section of the book we find Slettedahl reflecting on a series of failed pregnancies, lamenting "the phantom kickings that never were" and yearning for "a more complex and chaotic life." Unmercifully, the losses don't stop there. She also has to contend with a lost friendship and a dying father. Jane Kenyon has been quoted as saying that "there...is consolation from sad poems" and Slettedahl is acutely aware of this phenomenon. She reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering and grief. And we can persevere because she shows us how. I highly recommend this brave and impactful debut.

-Corey Cook, editor of Red Eft Review, author of Passing Cars