# FINISHING LINE PRESS: PROVIDING A PLACE FOR POETS, WRITERS, AND PLAYWRIGHTS, SINCE 1998\.

> Experience literary excellence with a trusted small press publisher\. Shop our curated collection or find submission guidelines to share your story\.

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## Products
- [Poems for the End of the World by Suzi Q\. Smith](https://finishinglinepress.com/product/poems-for-the-end-of-the-world-by-suzi-q-smith/): Full\-length, Paper

978\-1\-64662\-514\-7

2021

\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>A \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>richly \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>engaging \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>collection, \</span\>\<strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>Poems \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>for \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>the \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>End \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>of \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>the \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>World\</span\>\</strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\> \</span\>

\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>explores \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>climate \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>change, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>heartbreak, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>a \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>pandemic, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>grief, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>race, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>and \</span\>

\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>growth \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>all \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>woven \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>together\. \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>In \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>these \</span\>\<strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>poems\</span\>\</strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>, \</span\>\<strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>Suzi \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>Q\</span\>\</strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>\. \</span\>\<strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>Smith\</span\>\</strong\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\> \</span\>

\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>meditates \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>on \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>trees, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>fires, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>her \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>best \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>friends, \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>her \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>grandmother,\</span\>

\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>and \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>the \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>love \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>of \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>it \</span\>\<span class="gs\_tkn"\>all\.\</span\>
- [When I Press Stop: A Memoir of Loss by Rosemary Vaswani](https://finishinglinepress.com/product/when-i-press-stop-a-memoir-of-loss-by-rosemary-vaswani/): \<section\>Full\-length, Paper\</section\>\<section\>Debut\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>Pre\-order Price Guarantee until August 28, 2026\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>This title will be released on October 23, 2026\</section\>\<section\>\</section\> 

\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\<section\>Tracing the path of love, loss and renewal, \<em\>When I Press Stop\</em\> is a lyrical memoir written through song and cinematic imagery\.In the beginning, two young creatives fall in love, marry, and move to California, where they raise their daughter in the warmth of their shared dreams\. But when their daughter is fifteen, an unthinkable diagnosis strikes: a rare, fatal disease that takes her father within a month\.Through raw, visceral poems, the book moves through the shattering aftermath and the hope that arises as they move through their grief\.Both intimate and universal, \<em\>When I Press Stop\</em\> captures what it means to love deeply, to lose suddenly, and to keep stepping forward into life\. \#CJD \#Fatal \#Poetry \#Death \#Marriage \#SingleParent \#Love \#Priondisease \#Loss \</section\>\</section\>
- [Skeletons, Sequins, and Kin by Wednesdae Reim Ifrach](https://finishinglinepress.com/product/skeletons-sequins-and-kin-by-wednesdae-reim-ifrach/): \<section\>Paper\</section\>\<section\>Pre\-order Price Guarantee until September 4, 2026\</section\>\<section\>This title will be released on October 30, 2026\</section\>
\<pre\>\</pre\>
\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\</section\>\<section\>\<i\>Skeletons, Sequins, and Kin\</i\> is a poetry collection that traces the queer body as both battleground and sanctuary, weaving together stories of survival, kinship, nightlife, and inheritance\. Moving through bruises and glitter, protest and prayer, the poems chart how identity is written into flesh, remade on dance floors, and carried in chosen family\. Divided into four sections, the collection begins with explorations of embodiment, birth certificates, closets, scars, and the ways a body insists on its own truth\. It moves into the bloodlines we claim and the kin we create, honoring aunties, ghosts, and chosen family who stitch resilience from scar tissue\. The third section turns to nightlife as sacred ground, where sweat, sequins, and basslines become a form of liturgy and protection\. The final movement reckons with memory and inheritance, what we carry in our bones, the names we sharpen, the scars we keep as love letters, and the ancestors we become for ourselves\. At once tender and defiant, these poems illuminate queer survival as an act of radical kinship\. They testify that joy, body reclamation, and community are not afterthoughts to struggle but the very conditions of belonging\. \#QueerPoetry  \#TransPoets \#NonbinaryVoices  \#QueerCreatives  \#LGBTQPoetry \</section\>
- [Tracks in Snow by Thaddeus Rutkowski](https://finishinglinepress.com/product/tracks-in-snow-by-thaddeus-rutkowski/): Full\-length, paper

979\-8\-89990\-510\-0

2026

 

\<em\>Tracks in Snow \</em\>is a collection of short, lyric poems inspired by the author's life\. \<strong\>Thaddeus Rutkowski\</strong\> grew up as a biracial child in northern Appalachia and later moved to New York City, where he lives now\. These candid, compact poems focus on themes of alienation and belonging, closeness to nature, eventual parenthood, and aging\. Each poem contains careful observation of detail—the flapping of a bird's wing, the sound of a mantra, the smell of smoldering charcoal briquettes—and a conceptual twist that casts new light on the subject\.
- [OUR CAVAFY by Constantine Contogenis](https://finishinglinepress.com/product/our-cavafy-by-constantine-contogenis/): Full\-length, Paper

979\-8\-89990\-548\-3

2026

 
\<p class="yiv3085447275s5" style="text\-align: left;"\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>These 45 translations \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>from the Greek of \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>C\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>onstantine \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>P Cavafy \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>range from revelatory\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>view\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> of neglected but vital periods of \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>Greek/\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>Western \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>civilization to \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>utterly\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> personal\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>—and, yes, heartbreaking—experiences\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> of \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>homosexual desire\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>, and by imaginative extension, universal desire\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>\. \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>Th\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>is selection highlights \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>qualities of Cavafy’s poetry that \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>have\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> deeply moved \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>contemporary\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>English\-language \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>literature, qualities that can \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>refresh the reader’s perspectives on \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>history, sex,\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> and life\. My translations\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> distinguish themselves from most other Cavafy translations in two ways\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>, \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>by \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>using “unresolved ironies” to bring more of Cavafy’s profound and \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>too\-\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>often ignored questionings into English \(see Foreword\), \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>and by crafting each translation to stand on its own as an American poem\.\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\> \</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>112 pages, o\</span\>\<span class="yiv3085447275s6"\>riginal Greek included\.\</span\>\</p\>

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