Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millennium by Rosemarie Dombrowski

Rosemarie Dombrowski has created a poetic séance where the reader is granted a direct line to Emily Dickinson, one that dives behind the man-made myth and edited screen of her work, to the complicated woman who shares contemporary advice flush with profound relevance. She has channeled a twofold gift for the reader—we get to know and see the real Emily, while feeling seen in return. So often we turn to poetry to understand our lived reality, especially when that reality is governed by patriarchal rules, exclusion, and silencing. In response, these prose poems read as a manifesto for living, loving, and creating despite it all.

–Megan Merchant, author of Hortensia, in winter (winner of the New American Press Poetry Prize)

This is the antisocial media feed you’ve been searching for, a powerful collection of short prose poems that read like posts from the coolest, wisest, most anti-bullshit entity you’ve ever wanted to hang out with, each one hitting like a bomb to blast you back to full, fearless engagement with the mysteries of unfiltered grief, joy, and love. These are poems that ask, “what is life without fire?” Whether you’re a misfit, a punk, a goth, or a benumbed middle-aged suburban dad, Emily-via-Rosemarie is here to liberate you from capitalism’s denial of any feeling you can’t emoji-fy or just shake off with a trip to the mall. This is a book to read with pen-in-hand as you underline all your new favorite aphorisms, mantras, and future tattoos. Viva, Emily! Bravo, Rosemarie!

–Pete Miller (he/him/his), co-editor of A Dozen Nothing

We raise girls to be strong but socialize them to be polite. Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millenium presents this impossible disconnect to the girls and the grownups who love them. Mining Dickinson’s fascicles for clues to what Dickinson wanted for women, Dombrowski creates a gorgeous and lively compilation of bitter and beautiful truths in the form of small prose poems that remind girls of their vulnerabilities and how to conquer them: “Leave a trail of twigs for your soul, something to build an altar with on the other side.”

–Julia Lisella, poet, teacher, scholar, and author of Our Lively Kingdom