Gramarye.

Michelle’s original manuscript immediately captivated us. Her use of powerful imagery and her ability to shift easily between a casual, talkative voice to something that felt more visionary drew us in to the poems’ delicious sense of mystery. Michelle, though, wasn’t convinced she had organized the poems in way that made sense, so we first rearranged the collection into a shape that Michelle described as “an intentionally curated collection,” one that had come into its “proper alignment.”

As we dove deeper during the line-by-line critique phase, we helped Michelle bring out the connection between the concept of untamed place and the gift of relationship in her writing. And through this close collaboration, she uncovered new writing mechanics to express deeper truths.

We admire Michelle’s distinct style and use of language, so we wanted to design equally stunning cover concepts to match the collection’s content. Inspired by her poems’ powerful femininity, we presented her with three classic, black and white photographs of actresses from the 20s and 30s. We then “double exposed” the photograph Michelle selected with a green floral design. It was perfect. And after several rounds of close and careful proofreading, Michelle’s spellbinding book was ready to make its debut.

We were thrilled to help Michelle, who is wholly dedicated to sharing the magic of poetry with adults and teens alike, craft a beautiful book to enchant her readers. And in these crazy times we are living in, it’s work like this that lights us up and reminds us why we do what we do—to draw writers and readers together under poetry’s spell.

I can no longer tell where I begin and you end, and I do not care. I am the fish in your waters, luring you to a mermaid’s bed. Take my pomegranate seeds, and I will be your springtime.

And whenever we need a little dose a magic, we still pull her book off our shelf, drool over the cover, and lose ourselves in the work of our favorite “Witch of Words.”