The Traditional Feel of the Ballroom

by Hannah Gamble

In this collection of poems, Hannah Gamble plucks the girl from both the men and the unnecessary fluff to show the gut-wrenching reality of being a woman around men. In clipped language, she exposes the raw truth of being briefly trapped inside of a bar doorway and pretending to be okay with that. This collection doesn't sugarcoat. Instead, it cakes the reader in the dirt of men's hands-hands that may cup a woman's chin in deception or force a woman's hips to theirs. With Gamble's explicitly honest language, the audience (all the while trying to shake the filth) will be unable to stop reading, finding at the core of The Traditional Feel of the Ballroom a woman's unshakable determination when she's had enough.

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2021

About the author

Hannah Gamble is the author of Your Invitation to a Modest Breakfast (2012), selected by Bernadette Mayer for the 2011 National Poetry Series. She has received fellowships from InPrint Inc, The Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the University of Houston, where she served as an editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts.

Gamble has been a guest on podcasts such as Radio Free Albion with Chicago poet Tony Trigilio and Portland's Late Night Library with Paul Martone. Her poems have appeared in The Laurel Review, Forklift Ohio, and jubilant. She has written for the Poetry Foundation and the Poetry Society of America.