Susan Vespoli lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she relies on the power of writing to heal. After receiving the shattering news of her son’s murder on March 12, 2022, she was lifted up and put back together by poetry, the writing community, her teachers, workshop-mates, grief counselor(s), 12-step groups, employers (writers.com and 27Powers.org), editors of journals who stepped up to publish her obsessively written Adam poems, her blessed dogs, her family, friends, pen pals, and the natural world that surrounded her like a crazy quilt of fluorescent sunsets, bird shows, and bright orange poppy volunteers that infiltrated her front yard. She followed advice of wise gurus such as writer/teacher, Debra Gwartney, who said, “We must tell our stories. We must. What a travesty it will be if yet another generation of women die with our stories all sewn up inside our bodies,” and Elie Wiesel, who said, “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness,” and the Dalai Lama, whose quote on a random bookmark fell out of a library book: “May my suffering spare others from similar suffering.” She is the author of two books, Blame It on the Serpent (Finishing Line Press, January 2022) and Cactus as Bad Boy (Kelsay Books, July 2022).
For more, check out her website at:
susanvespoli.com
Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (July 5, 2023)