The Path of Birds: Poets on the Rise

THE PATH OF BIRDS curates a collection of twenty-five new and rising International poets and features the intricate narrative verse of Araceli Esparza. These poets beckon you to emerge tooth and claw-to fly, crest, and ultimately soar. These poems are not mere avian observations but the lyrical voices of daily song. They answer editor Samantha Malay's egg question, "Do we all dream of flight in our briny cradles?" Inspired by our kinship to birds, these poems borrow their fledgling journey, meeting each day and its struggles with migrational persistence. With the reading, these poems will crack open and wake you to something new and alive. They honor the journey, the nesting of parent and child, the love of words in artfully feathered hearts. They ask, where can't our words take us if they have wings? Illustrated with beautiful, luscious, full-color artwork by artists Robin Moravec & Joha Bisone, this book is a unique gift for the creative soul.

About the Author :
Polly Alice McCann (Editor) received her MFA in writing from Hamline University with an emphasis in short fiction and poetry. Polly Alice has been published internationally in journals: Naugatuck River Review, arc24, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, 365 Days: A Poetry Anthology (v3-4), Masticadores and elsewhere, and her poem "Hubcap Kansas City: Midtown Artist" is to be featured on the KC Streetcar in 2023. She credits much of her creative work from her research on the creative writing process that won her an Ernest Hartman award from the International Association for the Study of Dreams from Berkeley, CA. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri with her family. Araceli Esparza is an award-winning Chicana Poeta. Araceli's work has been published in several anthologies and journals, and you can hear her poetry in the Wisconsin Life archives. Pushcart Nominee twice! She is an MFA graduate from Hamline University. Araceli was born and raised in Madison, WI; her parents were migrant farmworkers from Guanajuato, Mexico, from whom she still gathers her strength. She recently co-edited a poetry anthology with Flying Ketchup Press, The Very Edge Poems, that can be bought at local bookstores and Amazon. Follow her on Instagram @araceliesparza_speaker for more writing classes and events! Currently, Araceli is planting seeds as a social justice speaker and founder of a Latina mentoring program (Midwest Mujeres) that mentors women on communication skills and provides a space for their stories. araceliesparza.com Samantha Malay A Flying Ketchup Press collaborator since 2019, Samantha contributed to The Very Edge: Poems (2020) and was the 2021 Poetry Editor in Residence. Her work recently appeared in Plainsongs, Kind Writers, and Five South, and her poem "Between" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (Shark Reef Magazine, 2020). She grew up in rural northeastern Washington State, where her family built a cabin with timbers salvaged from an abandoned homestead, hauled water from a creek, and read by kerosene lamp. Her experiences in that time and place continue to shape her work. Find more at samanthamalay.com.