Enjoying the poem, “Tonight, as You Pace the Garden” in My Heresies (Sarabande Books), a poetry collection by Alina Stefanescu:
“I am eating raw violets
I am curious about the possessing
in the having been possessed….”
The speaker exists amongst the flora and the fauna and faith or lack of it in the earth and, perhaps, even the self. A lovely sort of mundanity and haunting that one cannot deny sharing more than once. I was delighted to receive Stefanescu’s first signed copy of My Heresies at AWP 2025 in Los Angeles, California. READ NOW
About My Heresies
“The lyrical sweep and abandon of these poems is stunning. The tonal variation here, too, is so special. This is a poet who can be direct, metaphysical, compelling, humorous, intimate, playful—the list goes on. Truly, here is enough fire in these pages for seven poets. What a spellbinding book.” —Ilya Kaminsky
Riven by the tension between hagiographies, utopias, belief, longing, and grief, the poems of My Heresies catalog a personal and familial history originating in Bucharest, Romania and landing in Birmingham, Alabama. Whether through sardonic takes on old Bible myths or homage paid to French-Romanian poet Paul Celan, Stefanescu’s poems are laden in subtext, in imagery sometimes abstract and lush, at other times stark and shocking. My Heresies probes the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, and the result is a hauntological mapping of life, love, family, and womanhood. (Sarabande Books)
About Alina Stefanescu
About Openings
Openings is a recommendation column for Eckleburg readers, featuring fantastic books with fantastic openings, where readers first meet intriguing characters, settings and moments in which the mind can explore what is and what might be. Explore more great Openings with us at Eckleburg.
