Trigger Finger

by Micki Myers

Award winning collection of poems selected by Jim Daniels for the 2001 Pearl Poetry Prize

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

Published January 6, 2003

About the author

I am a writer originally from England who has lived and worked in the United States for 25 years. I taught poetry and literature at the University of Pittsburgh for many years before venturing into blogging.

My first book, Trigger Finger, won the Pearl Poetry Prize and considers what happens when we snap moments in time, as with a camera, a remote control, or a gun.

At age 39 I discovered I had breast cancer, and underwent a few years of intensive surgery and chemotherapy. My second book, a memoir in poems called It's Probably Nothing ... showcases the darkly humorous attitude that got me through and sheds light on some of the lesser-known aspects of cancer treatment and survival.

I have published over 100 poems in journals nationwide, and am a regular book reviewer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I have an art background and did all the illustrations for my book.

I love to write about history, science, and polar exploration, particularly when things go disastrously wrong. I am raising two children and feed them home-cooked food. I like to sing along loudly to country music in my car, which they find mildly entertaining.

Reviews

[Sarah Lada · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first began reading this book, I thought, "Oh no, here's another predictable book of brawn bad-assery full of grit-knuckled, iron-jawed poetry." The first few poems were good if they stood alone and weren't compiled in an area all together. There's an androgynous voice throughout most of the poems, but it's a strong voice of recollection, be it groggy or lucid. My two favorite poems in the book were actually back-to-back...."Ask No Questions Get No Lies" and "During Sleep". "Ask No Questions..." focuses on that moment of disassociation during intimacy. The book seems linear, as well, traveling through a quasi-innocent childhood to adolescence and adulthood speckled with Jimi Hendrix.