Signal Boost for Anastasia Walker!

Here is some great news to share. Anastasia Walker’s first book of poetry, The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is, is to be published by bd-Studios in February 2022. 7 of the poems in this book were featured in the Spring 2020 issue of BlazeVOX. So hurray, we couldn’t be more happy for Anastasia and for bd-Studios! Here is some information on the forthcoming book:

TRANSGENDER POET AND ACTIVIST SPEAKS OUT

DEBUT COLLECTION IS A MEDITATION ON COMMUNITY, HISTORY, NATURE

The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is, Anastasia Walker’s first book of poetry, is both a deeply personal work and a meditation on community, history, and the natural world.  In a series of poems and a closing autobiographical essay, the poet embraces her identity as a transgender woman through a harrowing, wonder-full journey from her childhood on the Maine coast to her post-transition life in Pittsburgh.  Other poems illuminate the stories of friends and community members, historical and mythological figures, and allies.  From the death in immigration detention of Honduran asylum seeker Roxsana Hernández, to the Stonewall riots, to the coming out of a friend’s teen son, to her brother’s experiences with Parkinson’s disease, these pieces’ subjects create a broad sense of shared struggle and interconnection.  A number of original photos and drawings enrich the writings.  The resulting mosaic invites readers to a conversation about death and life, despair and hope, time and memory, and the perennial complexities of love.

The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is will be available from bd-studios.com or your favorite bookstore on 4 February 2022.

Read Anastasia Walker’s poems from the Spring 2020 issue of BlazeVOX here.