Coal Town Photograph

by Pauletta Hansel

Poetry. "I read in a glossary of mining terminology that prize means to lever or loosen with a pry bar or pick. And the term suggests the noun for what is gained: a prize. In COAL TOWN PHOTOGRAPH, Pauletta Hansel prizes memory for the resource that it is. Throughout, this book dives into the challenge of the past as place. Its journey is from underground-darkness to a state of earned brightness. As she tells us in the title poem: 'I am from / a place that could not hold me, / never even tried. Come morning, / mist of evening rain, a ghost above a mirrored sun.' We should prize the work of this traveler forever."--Roy Bentley

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2019

About the author

Poet, Memoirist, Teacher and Editor Pauletta Hansel is the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. She served as the first Poet Laureate of Cincinnati from April 2016 through March 2018.

Pauletta is author of nine poetry collections including Heartbreak Tree, released in March 2022 by Madville Publishing. Heartbreak Tree is a poetic exploration of the intersection of gender and place in Appalachia.

Reviews

[Marianne Mersereau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those who grew up or live in small towns, particularly in the Appalachian region, will be able to especially appreciate the poems in this collection which the author has dedicated to "small town girls." My favorite is "The Road" which describes the beauty that folks in these small towns have been able to create "no matter how many times they were told nobody from here even tries." This poem is a wonderful rebuttal to "Hillbilly Elegy."

[Veronica Kopychenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would appreciate this more if I was older.