Poet
Vulnerable, beautiful and ultimately life-a ffirming, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz reaches new heights in her revelatory seventh collection of poetry. Continuing in her tradition of engaging, autobiographic work How to Love the Empty Air explores what happens when the author’s life reels in an upward trajectory and is soon rocked by the sudden death of her mother. In the year that follows, Aptowicz battles the silencing power of grief with intimate poems, capturing the dance that all newly grieving must do between everyday living and the desire “to elope with this grief, / who is not your enemy, / this grief who maybe now is your best friend. / is grief, who is your husband, / the thing you curl into every night…” As in her award-winning The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz counts her losses and her blessings, knowing how, despite it all, life “ripples boundless, like electricity, like joy / like… laughter, irresistible and bright, / an impossible thing to contain.”
PREORDER a signed & personalized copy of How to Love The Empty now from Cristin’s local independent bookstore, Austin’s amazing BookPeople, or from any of your favorite online (hopefully independent) booksellers.