Description
An Unwavering Horizon
by Gina Williams
$19.99, Full-length, paper
978-1-64662-151-4
2020
An Unwavering Horizon is a finely crafted collection that explores perspectives and understandings often missed in the hustle and crush of everyday life. The beautiful things. The ugly things. The poetry of things. Gina Williams takes an honest, questioning look at the hard realities of the human condition, from family crisis to war to our precarious place in the natural world, while also seeking answers and offering hope for the future. Jonathan Starke, editor of Palooka and author of You’ve Got Something Coming writes, “Williams channels the hardships of existence through a lightning voice of empathy and illumination—pure and crisp and sure of its subjects. The rough love of family, the fleeting nature of memory, the winding road of illness, the harsh screams of war, the sorrow of lost connection, and the ever-eroding hope for a better world.” The highly visual imagery and lyrical, yet grounded poetry of An Unwavering Horizon takes the reader on a satisfying and thought-provoking journey through the natural and human elements of Earth/Truth; Spirit/Power; Air/Love; and Water/Wisdom.
Gina Williams is a journalist, photographer, former firefighter, and gardener. She’s a Pacific Northwest native and can often be found rambling in the Oregon Outback, volunteering at the community garden, or on assignment in a far-flung location. She lives and creates near Portland, Oregon. Williams is a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and founder of Plein Air Poetry Northwest, a nonprofit organization supporting literary arts and environmental activism.
Plein Air Poetry Northwest –
“Williams channels the hardships of existence through a lightning voice of empathy and illumination—pure and crisp and sure of its subjects. The rough love of family, the fleeting nature of memory, the winding road of illness, the harsh screams of war, the sorrow of lost connection, and the ever-eroding hope for a better world. An Unwavering Horizon swells with compassion, pulses with lovely imagery, and fights to make sense of all that we’ll never know.”
–Jonathan Starke, founding editor of Palooka and author of You’ve Got Something Coming
Plein Air Poetry Northwest –
“Gina Williams is a powerfully observant poet whose work unfolds a world of emotion from the often-overlooked minutiae of everyday existence. An Unwavering Horizon is a finely crafted collection of many different strands that readers will delight in returning to again and again.”
–Dr. Darren Richard Carlaw, Editor, StepAway Magazine
Plein Air Poetry Northwest –
“In An Unwavering Horizon Gina Williams gives us a look at family and moments of intimacy and discovery: Granny watered the crumbling / red clay dirt . . . She glances /out toward the empty road, /then sets her jaw, thin lips /an unwavering horizon. But this ‘horizon’ expands the view: For the AIDS babies, he explains, softly, / needles never pausing . With it comes the innocent wisdom of a child: he looks toward the altar— /points at the crucified christ /as if seeing it for the first time /and screams, ‘mommy! look! /get that man down. A collection for the thinker: “a man out there a drift . . . / . . . /Jesus nowhere to be found.” In this pensive collection, the reader will find reason to relate and to question.”
–Robert L. Giron, Editor in Chief, Gival Press, ArLiJo
Harlan Wheeler –
“Gina’s poetry brings the everyday things we do in our common life together. We absorb through our eyes and comprehend it with our intelligence, but her poetry is much more deeper, it’s as if there is a symbolic joining of our hearts and minds, making one fall in love with her words and our-self at the same time.
Carol Boutard –
Gina’s poetry is among the most carefully composed I have ever read, pared down to the essential which accounts for its power. the musicality and cadence of her poems are exquisite. There is always a surprise for the reader, always something to learn about writing and about the world. I am impatient for this book to arrive and the next.
Gina Williams (verified owner) –
Thank you to Neon Books for this lovely review! https://www.neonbooks.org.uk/review-an-unwavering-horizon-gina-williams/
Georges M. –
Gina Williams is a fantastic poet with a heck of a strong voice. An Unwavering Horizon is full of gorgeous lines, irony, tragedy, self- and outer-world reflection, and the illumination of wilderness along with the shifting impact of familial love, distance, and misunderstanding. The most wonderful thing about this collection is how each poem tells a compact (and valuable) story, the details and mood making you feel like you’re wholly there, sharing each intense moment, whether beautiful, heartbreaking, or as pleasant as picking berries.
Andrea Watson (verified owner) –
Remarkable. Bone chilling empathy, humanity..words that snap you to a very specific time/place.