Book Celebration: Incidental Pollen by Ellen Austin-Li
June 22 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT
Join us for a celebration of the launch of Incidental Pollen, the debut full-length collection from Ellen Austin-Li. She will be joined by her friend and mentor, poet Pauletta Hansel. Expect some poems and some conversation around the making of this beautiful new collection.
INCIDENTAL POLLEN
RUNNER-UP FOR THE 2023 ARTHUR SMITH POETRY PRIZE
Incidental pollen refers to pollen that collects on bees as they forage for nectar—like the cumulative life experiences we cannot help but carry. The hive serves as a thematic thread in this collection that explores the space between past and present, shame and redemption, grief and resilience. Poetic forms lend meaning—like the villanelle that captures the grief-driven magical thinking of the speaker. Are recurring red fox sightings visitations from her deceased father and nephew? Trauma and loss appear in these tonally rich and imagistic poems, but the arc ultimately centers on the search for belonging, the attempt to recreate home.
About Ellen
Ellen Austin-Li’s first full-length collection, Incidental Pollen—a 2023 Trio Award finalist, a 2024 Wisconsin Poetry Series semi-finalist, and runner-up for the Arthur Smith Poetry Prize—is forthcoming from Madville Publishing. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks, Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic (2021). Her work appears in Artemis, Thimble Literary, The Maine Review, Salamander, Lily Poetry Review, Rust & Moth, and many other places. She’s a Best of the Net nominee and holds an MFA in poetry from the Solstice Low-Residency Program. Ellen co-founded the monthly reading series, “Poetry Night at Sitwell’s,” in Cincinnati, where she lives.
About Pauletta
Pauletta Hansel’s ten poetry collections include Will There Also Be Singing? (Shadelandhouse Modern Press, 2024); Heartbreak Tree (Madville Publications, 2022), which won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2023 North American Book Award; and Palindrome (Dos Madres Press, 2017) winner of Berea College’s Weatherford Award in Poetry. Her writing has been featured in Oxford American, Rattle, Appalachian Journal, Still: The Journal, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, among others. Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first poet laureate, and the 2022 Writer in Residence for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.