Saint Paul, MN, September 02, 2024 - In Stars Unseen to be published September 17 by Holy Cow! Press, Greg Watson fearlessly navigates a path through multi-generational trauma and grief, explores his Finnish-American heritage, and the joys and challenges of single parenting in the present age. It is a clear-eyed collection that seeks hope and redemption in the face of adversity, and manages to pin down the smallest moments for closer examination.
In The Days Between, released August 28 by Kelsay Books, Greg spends time with his familiars; his lost brother, his double shadow, his losses, his memories of different kinds and qualities of love, his old notebooks carrying old news and truths, the return of the act of drawing to his life … and most essential to this collection; his daughter. Watson’s charms against certain darkness are made real to the reader in this collection.
“I am not interested in being overly clever or ironic with my poems. I write about love and death, the multi-generational trauma within families, the Finnish-American experience of my ancestors, and being a single father in a violent, dangerous, and uncertain age,” says Watson. “I can’t imagine a life without writing poems. Poetry has been, and continues to be, a life raft. It is not hyperbole to say that poetry has saved my life. When I write, I am giving back as best I can to the thing that has given so much to me.”
Review Excerpts:
The Days Between – "Greg Watson's faith in the reader - to catch his tone, to begin to understand preoccupations, his visions, his losses - all this is moving. I think we feel acknowledged, but we also know he is traveling with 'half-finished maps', and with "steadfast allegiance to beauty," and we readers are with him." -Deborah Keenan, author of eleven collections of poetry. www.DeborahKeenan.com
Stars Unseen – "There is a conjuring of needed words of breath, blood and memory in the recollection of ancestors, childhood and parenthood. There is the sorrow and challenges of the Finnish immigrants who came before him, his harsh childhood of punishments, struggles and deprivation, but also his steady, cherished work of being a present father. While he is the keeper of the family stories, sorrows and secrets, he also shows us how the poet can still dream." -Diane Jarvenpa, author of Shy Lands. www.DianeJarvi.com
Bio: Greg Watson
Born a Saint Paul, MN native in 1970, Greg began writing poetry in his youth as a coping mechanism. Since first being published in 1998; Greg has released a total of nine full-length poetry titles and three chapbooks, with several more collections in the chamber. Greg has also co-edited the poetry anthology The Road by Heart, for Nodin Press and served as contributing author in eight anthologies. Greg resides in Saint Paul with his beloved daughter and dedicates his life to fatherhood and poetry - in that order.
Contact
Greg Watson Poetry
Greg Watson
651-233-9286
www.GregWatsonPoet.com
Jim Perlman
Founding Editor
Holy Cow! Press
218-606-2792
holycow@holycowpress.org
www.HolyCowPress.org
Karen Kelsay
Founding Editor
Kelsay Books
kelsay.karen@gmail.com
www.KelsayBooks.com
