This title will be released on October 30, 2026running with the beasts explores the survival of women in a world shaped by the intersecting challenges of capitalism, inequality, and aging. Moving between poetry, prose poetry, and micro memoir, the collection navigates the complexities of contemporary life with themes of resilience, empowerment, and the reclamation of feminine strength. From Midwestern girlhood to the corporate corridors of Houston’s oil boom to the rediscovery of creativity and wild wisdom over time, these pieces speak especially to women seeking transformation and reconnection to their power at every stage of life.
After a successful career in organizational and leadership development, Kathi Crawford founded People Possibilities, LLC in 2008. Writing poetry has been an ongoing journey of learning and exploration for her. She has always been curious about human nature and the reasons behind our choices. Through her work, she hopes to spark dialogue about the challenges we face both collectively and individually. Her writing has been featured in a variety of literary journals, both online and in print. Her debut chapbook, consider the light, was published by Finishing Line Press (2025). Connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn @kathicrawford or subscribe to her blog at https://kathicrawford.com.
PRAISE:
Kathi Crawford’s running with the beasts drops us into the world of women’s labor—both seen and unseen. It tracks generations of women—across bluebonnet fields on bicycles and in conference rooms—as they wrestle with what it means to work, to dream, to live. Time slips in this world of unicorn dreams, lost brothers, and burned regrets. Flagrantly feminist and full of flawed heroines, this collection is for those looking to reclaim something lost, “a welcome reprieve.”–Holly Lyn Walrath, writer, editor, and publisher of Interstellar Flight Press, author of Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2018) a first-place Elgin Awards winner, Numinose Lapidi (Kipple Press, 2020), and The Smallest of Bones (Clash Books, 2021)
Fierce and tender by turns, running with the beasts is the story of a woman’s life, captured in poems, prose poetry, and micro memoir. From mid-century Midwestern girlhood to corporate warrior in the Houston oil boom of the late 20th century to a woman rediscovering her own creativity and resilience, Kathi Crawford brings vivid, kaleidoscopic imagery to this archetypal journey of a heroine learning to reject traditional expectations and trust her inner voice in all its wild wisdom: I will clear the trail. I will measure time by the stars.–Kathryn Kulpa, writer, librarian, 2025 writer-in-residence at Linden Place in Bristol, Rhode Island, with work in Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions, and author of A Map of Lost Places (Gold Line Press, 2025), For Every Tower, a Princess (Porkbelly Press, 2024), Cooking Tips for the Demon-Haunted (New Rivers Press Chapbook Contest Winner, 2023), Girls on Film (Vella Chapbook Award Winner, 2015), and Pleasant Drugs: Stories (Mid-List Press, 2005)
In running with the beasts, Kathi Crawford takes us on an odyssey that explores complex relationships experienced over the course of a lifetime—relationships with family, friends, husbands, colleagues, and ultimately with her with own body and identity as a woman facing the challenges of aging. Crawford’s reveries, expressed in both poetry and prose, are driven by a voice rich with vivid imagery, urgent with movement, and sharp with surprise. She says, “I danced curlicues with the wind/unaware of the next turn” and urges, “dive deeper into the pool…learn the rapid, shallow breathing of survival.” In reading running with the beasts, we find ourselves on a sometimes perilous and always daunting journey, ultimately concluding, as does the writer, “we are a brew worth dancing for.”–Kelly Ann Ellis, writer, educator, editor, and publisher of Equinox (hotpoet.org), nominated for a Pushcart prize for her poem “Reef” (Odes and Elegies: Eco-Poetry, Texas Gulf Coast, 2020), and author of The Hungry Ghost Diner (Lamar University Press, 2023).
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