Description
Praise for Stitching Earth to Sky “In Stitching Earth to Sky, an anthology of work by the PaperBirch Poets, we are given memorable work in dialog with literature, experience, and landscape. This is a delightful and accomplished collection filled with Northwood sights and the memories of long lives. Bravo!” —Robin Chapman, poet, author of The Only Home We Know (Tebot Bach, 2019).
Linda Bavisotto (verified owner) –
The Birch Paper poets have collectively put together a soulful and compelling anthology in the aptly titled “Stitching Earth to Sky”.
Each of these gifted and highly attuned co-authors (Nancy Austin, Jan Bosman, Andree Graveley, Elaine Hohensee, Mary Louise Peters, Elaine Strite, Janet Taliaferro, Shannon Thielman and Michelle Zanoni) has contributed her perspective, representing a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, but all sharing a love of and connection to the Wisconsin Northwoods.
With candid honesty and self-awareness, and drawing on all their senses, these poets find both grace and irony, often juxtaposing surprising associations in their observations of everyday as well as extraordinary situations, in the simplest of actions, capturing and distilling down to their stark essence the glory and vicissitudes of nature and the people around them, keenly observe the perennial turning of Wisconsin seasons. Comfort, sorrow, peace, humor, wit, pathos, grace and growth, gratitude and redemption shine abundantly in the achingly beautiful reflections throughout this collection.
Sarah Juon –
It’s always a pleasure to read poetry that is securely grounded in the particulars of a place. In Stitching Earth to Sky we have nine talented poets who evoke with poignant detail, without resorting to sentimentality, the beauty of the lakes, forests and wildlife in Northern Wisconsin. But these are not nature poems. While each poet skillfully reveals through imagery and metaphor her special connection to Northern Wisconsin, the poems embrace the universal themes of love, loss and aging. Most of all, they demonstrate what we can learn about ourselves through the observation of nature, complicated relationships, and refreshingly unfamiliar cultures.
—Sarah Juon is a retired journalist and the author of the novel A Private Passion and many short stories and articles. She lives in Rhinelander, Wisconsin
Susan Gehl –
This is a delightful window to the beauty of nature and place as it relates to reflections of the past and present. The poems in this anthology speak of love, death, sisterhood, struggle and triumph. I became immersed in the canvas of nature and life.