A New Book of Poetry for a Poolside Read

Cynthia Atkins: New book of poetry

My pal Cynthia Atkins' new book, In the Event of Full Disclosure, is here and for you who love poetry, this represents a nice read by the pool on a hot summer's day.

Here's what's being said about the book on Barnes & Noble's website:

The family connections in Cynthia Atkins' The family connections in Cynthia Atkins' In the Event of Full Disclosureare intimate, both entwining and empowering the rich experience these poems convey.

"I've faked it and faked it well./ I hear our ancestors yelling / from the mental ward of hell," declares Cynthia Atkins near the start of In the Event of Full Disclosure, a book that explores what it means when mental illness becomes close as blood. Family offers both comfort and disquiet. In these elegant, beautifully observed poems, Atkins considers the burden of being a daughter, a sibling, a mother, and-most of all-a poet charged with making sense of 'indecipherable lists,' of wars domestic and national, and of the fact that all of us are 'born in a trick of love.'"

-Jehanne Dubrow

"I like the easy and big-hearted familiarity with the reader that Cynthia Atkins shows in her poetry. She doesn't keep us at arm's length. She invites us right in, an act that lends confidence and helps to break down the barriers between writer and reader. At those moments when the 'small feet / of silence conspire / in your ear' and 'the gibbous moon rises / like an old rubbed coin,' we feel we are right there with her. What a pleasure it is to be in the presence of poetry that is so readable and companionable!"

-Richard Tillinghast

 Cynthia is assistant professor of English at Virginia Western Community College and has taught at Hollins University, James Madison University and Roanoke College. She lives in Rockbridge County and has taught at our Roanoke Regional Writers Conference. Buy the book. It's a good 'un.