by Keely Hyslop, winner of the 2011 MRBA

 

Things I Say to Pirates on Nights When I Miss You by Keely Hyslop, “rescues Pirate Anne Bonny as female warrior and instigator of this robust collection of poems. Like her muse, the speaker in these poems is ferocious, eccentric, wild, and uncontained. Yet, one encounters a measured yet nourishing and questing intelligence in love with language and song. This is the book we’ve been waiting for featuring a woman not afraid of the adventures of the mind nor the open seas of the heart.” 

– contest judge and acclaimed poet Major Jackson

 

Keely Hyslop was born in California’s San Joaquin Valley. She left the asparagus fields and Tule fog to study at University of California, San Diego; and then left the naval bases and sunny beaches to return to Northern California to get her MFA at San Francisco State University. She currently lives in the Bay Area with her loving partner and their two malicious cats, Yoshimi and Dexter. Her publications include 400 Words, sPARKLE & bLINK, Forth Magazine, Poecology, Weave Magazine, Conversations at the Wartime Cafe, and others. 

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