The editors of Glint Journal have kindly published Leslie Ferguson’s review of my second collection, what she holds in Issue 12, Winter 2021. Ms. Ferguson is a poet, memoirist, and editor. Her new memoir, When I Was Her Daughter (Acorn Publishing, 2021) is available here.

In her intelligent and compassionate commentary on my work, Ms. Ferguson begins:

In this striking, unforgettable book, d. ellis phelps’ simple form and language create a kaleidoscope of the poet’s memory of growing up as the daughter of an abusive man. Ultimately, by doing the heart-breaking work of sifting through her trauma, phelps hopes to discover healing and peace.

As if peeling back layers of a life lived, phelps employs imagery that returns us to the speaker’s childhood again and again, dredging the depths of a past the speaker has tried but failed to forget. In the book’s first poem, “uninvited,” phelps provides a heart-wrenching glimpse into what it means to ache by merely existing in this world—to be born already needing too much—

Leslie Ferguson

Read the entire review here.

Thank you, Leslie, for your careful, close reading. & Thanks to the Glint editors who chose to publish this review.

Namaste,

d