Anything That Happens by Cheryl Wilder (Spring 2021)
Join us for our Spring 2021 blog tour for Cheryl Wilder’s Anything That Happens, a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection published by Press 53 in March 2021.
At the age of twenty, Cheryl Wilder got behind the wheel when she was too drunk to drive. She emerged from the car physically whole. Her passenger, a close friend, woke up from a coma four months later with a life-changing brain injury. Anything That Happens follows her journey from a young adult consumed by shame and self-hatred to a woman she can live with… and even respect. Along the way, Wilder marries, has a son, divorces, and cares for her dying mother. Anything That Happens examines what it takes to reconcile a past marked by a grave mistake, a present as caregiver to many, and a future that stretches into one long second chance.
A debut poetry collection that examines how to reconcile a past grave mistake and a future that stretches into one long second chance. Cover art, “In bloom” by Coleen Tagnolli.
Advance Praise:
The difficult story of what follows a terrible accident in Anything That Happens has me thinking about the word aftermath, how it means not only dire consequences but second-growth, as new grass after a harvest. Cheryl Wilder’s poems are almost shatteringly direct: they explore guilt and suffering so cleanly and so precisely that every detail testifies, and mercy is ever possible. This is a brave and honorable book. —Nancy Eimers, author of Oz
Anything That Happens is a mature poetic inquiry into the ways early trauma can reverberate through the whole of a life—relationships, family, one’s sense of self. The poems are candid, sharp-edged and very well rendered. You can taste “the bone in the broth” here as Wilder works through the maze of emotion. In the end, we witness change and redemption, but the psychic weight remains. As she aptly describes it: “I am two people now— // the before and the after; one I’ve already forgotten, // the other I have not met.” —Mark Cox, author of Readiness: Prose Poems
About the Author:
Cheryl Wilder is the author of Anything That Happens, a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection (Press 53, 2021), a collection that examines how to reconcile a past grave mistake and a future that stretches into one long second chance. Her chapbook, What Binds Us (Finishing Line Press, 2017), explores the frailty and necessity of human connection.
A founder and editor of Waterwheel Review, Cheryl earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Sign up for her newsletter.
Add to GoodReads:
Blog Tour Schedule:
April 1: Diary of an Eccentric (Review)
April 5: The Book Lover’s Boudoir (Review)
April 14: Review Tales by Jeyran Main (Interview)
April 21: Impressions in Ink (Review)
April 29: Jorie Loves A Story (Interview/Review)
May 3: Musings of a Bookish Kitty (Review)
May 4: Diary of an Eccentric (Guest Post)
May 5: Suko’s Notebook (Guest Post)
May 6: Anthony Avina’s Blog (Review)
May 13: Anthony Avina’s Blog (Guest Post)
Follow the blog tour with the hashtag #AnythingThatHappens #CherylWilder @Press53
Posted on March 27, 2021, in Past Blog Tours and tagged Anything That Happens, Cheryl Wilder, poetry. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
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