Brace

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About Brace

Embark on theauthor’s poetic journey from leaving an ex-husband and faith to getting remarried and having two children. A tender debut chapbook. 

“I lean down to the drops

and hang on tight

for whatever it is

I’m getting ready for next.”

The Blooming Series

The 2025 goal for TW is the nourishing of our roots: hand-bound chapbooks. With our new, runic colophon as a compass, we wish to embrace the natural world, channel the sublime beauty of classical art, develop three debut poets into world-class authors, and craft the most artisanal chapbooks in our catalog. This is The Blooming Series.

40 pgs, 5.0” x 7.0”

Cover design by Josh Dale

Edited by Maryam Qureshi

Jacket Artwork: Alpheus and Arethusa (1832) a painting by John Martin

Released on 5-9-25

For international orders greater than 2 units: please email us before ordering so we can calculate shipping, thanks!

Edition Information

Standard edition comes in a crisp, perfect-bound glue binding. For bookshelves.

Budget edition comes in a hand-folded, saddle-stitch staple binding. For trading.

Limited edition comes in a nuanced, hemp cord binding of 20 copies. For special collections.

About Brace

Embark on theauthor’s poetic journey from leaving an ex-husband and faith to getting remarried and having two children. A tender debut chapbook. 

“I lean down to the drops

and hang on tight

for whatever it is

I’m getting ready for next.”

The Blooming Series

The 2025 goal for TW is the nourishing of our roots: hand-bound chapbooks. With our new, runic colophon as a compass, we wish to embrace the natural world, channel the sublime beauty of classical art, develop three debut poets into world-class authors, and craft the most artisanal chapbooks in our catalog. This is The Blooming Series.

40 pgs, 5.0” x 7.0”

Cover design by Josh Dale

Edited by Maryam Qureshi

Jacket Artwork: Alpheus and Arethusa (1832) a painting by John Martin

Released on 5-9-25

For international orders greater than 2 units: please email us before ordering so we can calculate shipping, thanks!

Edition Information

Standard edition comes in a crisp, perfect-bound glue binding. For bookshelves.

Budget edition comes in a hand-folded, saddle-stitch staple binding. For trading.

Limited edition comes in a nuanced, hemp cord binding of 20 copies. For special collections.

About the Author

Author photo by Scott DeLoach

Abigail Michelini, Ph.D., teaches writing at Northampton Community College. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Thimble Literary Magazine, Whale Road Review, and The Main Street Rag. Her scholarly work has been published in The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics and the Writing Center Journal. In the summer of 2023, she was an artist-in-residence for the East 40 in Bethlehem, PA, the result of which is a poetry walk anyone can explore in person or on her website. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing with her kids and running Pennsylvania roads. Brace is her debut chapbook. Find her at www.abigailmichelini.com

Reviews

“In Abigail Michelini’s Brace, everyday moments are elevated into poetry—messy, tender, fleeting, and unforgettable. With a grounded yet expansive poetic voice, Michelini explores motherhood, family, love, and the relentless forward motion of life. Nature is ever-present, offering calm and clarity, while the domestic world becomes a landscape of growth, resilience, and both a rebellion against and an embracing of time.”

 —Javier Ávila, award-winning author of El antagonista and Polvo

 

“Abigail Michelini’s debut chapbook, Brace, lives up to its title, demanding resilience from both writer and reader alike. With haunting lyricism and raw detail, Michelini chronicles the weight of what it means to endure—whether the slow unraveling of relationships, the challenges of womanhood and motherhood, the starving for faith, or the relentless grip of an eating disorder. Page after page, these courageous poems honor the private reckonings of the self in a society that idealizes and violates the feminine body. These poems confront the facts of the body—its burdens, its betrayals, and the limits of control we bluff ourselves into believing.”

 —Robert Fillman, author of The Melting Point