Vellum Leaves and Lettered Skins
Colleen Anderson
Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press
Summary
Complex emotions and experiences are woven into the architecture of Vellum Leaves and Lettered Skins, where the reader is both captured and freed by meditations on perseverance and survival. While fables and mythology tower over our literary landscape casting a long shadow, Anderson uses electrifying retellings in verse to illuminate new meaning in well-known tales. Straddling the line between universal and deeply personal, this lush garden of poems has been seeded in a fairytale realm but grows beyond such boundaries into horror, fantasy, and confessional poetry. Anderson deftly prunes her concepts down to their powerful cores, revealing the truths at the root of our folklore. In a world of princes and witches, of maidens and curses, brute force and heroic conquest can fail in the face of a gilded cage. Here, poems affirm the strength of subtlety and soft power as the untold stories of women shape the fortunes of entire kingdoms. Praise “Each poem is a delicate yet powerful exploration of identity, autonomy, and the enduring strength found in embracing one’s story.” Angela Yuriko Smith two-time Bram Stoker Award® winner, publisher of Space and Time “Anderson weaves both the dark autumnal viscera of memory and hope with wild dreamscape, and the fantastic into a personal and poetic tapestry that allows readers to walk their own path through strange and beautiful gardens.” Maxwell I. Gold Bram Stoker Award® nominee, Bleeding Rainbows and Other Broken Spectrums “…a luminous work that hums with longing, each poem, each small reveal, delivering an ache of recognition.” Lee Murray award winninger author of Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud “There is visceral magic in this poetic masterwork born of the deep and tragic humanity found within the prison of the lonely self.” Jamal Hodge Bram Stoker Award® nominee, The Dark Between the Twilight “Natural imagery is the cloak of this richly layered tapestry.” Denise Dumars 2nd Place Rhysling Award winner, Pushcart & Elgin Award nominee “Mad poetic honey in hemlock tea, sinister sweetness only hides deadly sap. Fairy tales and mythology fracture and reform, showing their sharp teeth and transformations.” Pixie Bruner Rhysling Chair 2025, author of The Body as Haunted “Anderson’s beautiful voice sings stronger than ever here, sprouting curiosity at every turn, and taking your thoughts to places you’ll never predict.” Michael Arnzen Bram Stoker Award® winner, author of The Gorelets Omnibus
Available since: 07/29/2025.
Print length: 106 pages.
