HIRAETH - Mistie R. Watkins
ABOUT THE BOOK
Mistie Watkins can't quit talking to herself. Raised in a close-knit and deeply religious family of storytellers in rural Central Florida, she writes to understand herself and the place and people she comes from. Hiraeth is a linked series of prose poetry snapshots that bring to life Watkins’s big family, her late sister, and the Florida scrub they call home. In this elegiac and lyric patchwork, memory and family myth compete to find truth and beauty in growing up, life after tragedy, familial bonds, and the shortcomings of religion and love.
PRAISE FOR HIRAETH
“Mistie Watkins writes the kind of Florida I long to see: one that's both tender and feral; a place that's filled to the brim with hope, despite the occasional pocket of rot. Hiraeth is a lovely and dynamic read, lyric and stylish, lush as the palm scrub sprouting throughout the state. It truly moved me. This book is a balm to the soul and Watkins is a compelling new voice.”
—Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things and With Teeth
“Mistie Watkins’ rich and moving collection of prose poems evokes the sensual, under-the-radar world of rural central Florida while telling a riveting family story. Watkins glides effortlessly between childhood perceptions of momentous incidents and a wiser, grown woman’s survey of the delights and the damage. This mosaic is filled with portraits and narratives that evolve into a panorama of how a young girl learns the world from her surroundings. The small, potent story-poems are interspersed with imagistic reminders of the Florida setting in all its heat, scrub, beauty, and magic. Hiraeth is a beautiful and satisfying read.”
—Susan Lilley, author of Venus In Retrograde
“Mistie Watkins' Hiraeth is a stunning collage of character studies that together construct a family mythology so deeply felt it ripples out beyond the pages. Here, the fantastical blurs seamlessly with the brutal beauty of life in Central Florida, invoking hitchhiking genies, church ladies' whispers of changeling cousins, and a lost sister whose memory is as fragile as her budding wings. The narrative voice is at once sunblistered and lush, feral and elegant; Watkins writes with devoted attention to all the fleeting details that compose a home—and all the longing we can only feel for home when it's behind us.”
—Erin Slaughter, author of A Manual for How to Love Us and The Sorrow Festival
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mistie R. Watkins is a writer, painter, and avid reader. She was born and raised in the sugar sand and scrub of Central Florida. As a child she dreamed of being either an alligator wrangler or a marine biologist but after careful consideration decided to go into the even more glamorous world of education. She lives in Orlando with her kiddo, two dogs, and two rats. You can find her work in Fantastic Floridas, The Drunken Odyssey, and Autofocus or follow her on Instagram at mistie_thebogwitch.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: September 5, 2023
Print Length: 94 pages
Dimensions: 5.25”x8”
ISBN: 978-1-957392-16-5