Heating & Cooling

This book is weird in the sweetest of ways, written so tightly, funny and devastating and clever and all the good things. Beth Ann has taught me, in this book, what is possible in the short form --this was a book that made me want to WRITE!

This book combines compressed prose with nonfiction truth-telling but it isn’t linear or a complete story as much as a snapshot of Fennelly’s childhood, home life, and keen observations.

This book showed me that the quality of writing trumps the quantity of words. Short and sparse, when well written, can find a place on a bookshelf and shine.  

This book breaks the rigid lap lanes of how a poem is “supposed to look”, and I love that about it. The pieces range from 2 lines to several pages, and can look like flash-fiction or something you jotted on a sticky-note beside your bed.

Fennelly never takes herself too seriously, as in the poem titled, “Returning From Spring Break, Junior Year at Notre Dame” and the one-line poem below the title, “Swapped the rosary on my bedpost for Mardi Gras beads.” 

But it is not all kicks and giggles, as she confronts the reality of grief in the poem,… show more.

As a native Mississippian, I was already aware of Fennelly’s works, but this collection is my absolute favorite of her wonderful collections. She uses micro pieces to tell some of the most interesting experiences of her life (so far). Even more, she blurs the line between what is poem and what is prose. She can take a single moment in time and make it into a lesson on life and the realities of the world. I highly recommend this book if you want to see how micro writing can be used for nonfiction.