Mouthbrooders

Where does language originate, especially the language of poetry?in the brain or the emotions? In the images we behold, or in the memory? In this deeply observant collection, Amy Nawrocki asks, "What language do you have / for the barren days when nothing catches your eye?" And although "The contortionist is unable to speak / from all her sword swallowing," Nawrocki whose brain and emotions once survived a near-fatal illness, is able to be, in beautiful language, an eyewitness?not only to her own inner life but also to what is fragile and transient in all our lives. This poet knows how illness and fear can seep into the everyday.  And it is exactly this awareness that breathes life into every word of Mouthbrooders. 

-Cortney Davis, author of Taking Care of Time

Amy Nawrocki of New Haven, CT

Amy Nawrocki is a Connecticut native, raised in Newtown and now living in Hamden. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas. She has received numerous honors for her poetry, including awards from the Litchfield Review Poetry Contest, the Codhill Chapbook Competition, The Loft Anthology, Phi Kappa Phi, New Millennium Writings, and the Connecticut Poetry Society. She is the author of five poetry collections: Potato Eaters, Nomad’s End, Lune de Miel, Four Blue Eggs and Reconnaissance. With her husband, Eric D. Lehman, she wrote A History of Connecticut Wine, A History of Connecticut Food and Literary Connecticut.  She teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Bridgeport and is mother to two cats, Maple and Django.