Something Like Forgiveness is a new full-color poetry book by Rebecca Schumejda, published by Stubborn Mule Press, that features a single long-form poem about the incarceration of her brother and its rippling effects across their family. Throughout the book is artwork by Hosho McCreesh.

How do you forgive the unforgivable? This is the question Rebecca Schumejda wrestles with, on a grand scale, in this emotionally taut, tightly structured, intensely personal poem. Using a slow reveal, the poet dispenses morsels of information, with regard to the nature of the crime, and her struggles with coping with her love for her brother who committed it and, finally, the heinous nature of what he did, until we learn, as well, what happened. She asks, among the many effective refrains, “What if you had died that night?” Somehow life could have been easier if he had. Maybe. I know how she feels. I’ve been there: different relative, similar crime. Something Like Forgiveness is not simply a must read, it is an experience.Alan Catlin, poet, editor 'Misfit Magazine'

 

 

Rebecca Schumejda is the author of several full-length collections including Falling Forward (sunnyoutside press), Cadillac Men (NYQ Books), Waiting at the Dead End Diner (Bottom Dog Press) and most recently Our One-Way Street (NYQ Books). She is the co-editor at Trailer Park Quarterly. She received her MA in Poetics from San Francisco State University and her BA from SUNY New Paltz. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her family.

Hosho McCreesh is currently writing, painting, and making stuff in the gypsum and caliche badlands of the American Southwest. His work has appeared widely in print, audio, and online.

Something Like Forgiveness is available from Stubborn Mule Press for just $30.00 at https://stubbornmulepress.bigcartel.com/product/something-like-forgiveness