Out of True Blog Tour

Welcome to the next stop of the Out of True blog tour!!

I'm thrilled to be a part of this blog tour which is honoring the release of Amy Durant's (aka @lucysfootball) debut poetry collection, and is being spearheaded by Susie of The Insatiable Booksluts.

Despite a pretty nasty virus that may very well force my laptop into an early grave, I am here and bouncing up and down in excitement, you guys! I have an audio recording of Amy reading her poem "Fever" for you... but before I share, I wanted to gush a bit about her collection. 

You know what most people are thinking when they hear the P word, right? Oh, gasp, poetry! Horrible rhyming things full of clunky, awkward sentences that no one would ever speak out loud in public, unless they were drunk and possibly looking to get their ass kicked. Oh, ew, poetry! The sappy embarrassing outpourings of unrequited love that would be better kept to yourself except you're too hung up in the moment to see how sad and pathetic you sound. Or, for those of you had a bad time of it in high school literature, cringing and cowering in the corner upon hearing the P word, thrown back headlong into those excruciating memories of being forced to critique and "close read" individual lines of wickedly famous and practically undecipherable poems.

Well, snap out of it, man! If you weren't a fan of poetry before, you will be once you lay your eyes on Amy Durant's Out of True. This collection contains poignant, passionate perspectives on human relationships and celestial lovefests. She writes free verse, so each poem reads like flash fiction, a sweet one-two punch to the gut that has you all tied up in knots. 

And the best part for me, as I read through the collection? She's scattered witty one liners throughout the collection that reach out and shake you awake as you read. "Poet's tongues are fat with lies" is one of my favorite lines. Or what about these? "I want everything you are made of to be a part of me" and "I want to touch him just for the reaction"? If you don't feel something when you are reading lines like those, you may as well jump into the grave with my laptop because you are dead or dying, my friend! 

While a good portion of her poems revolve around her own personal love and loss, there are others that are sprinkled here and there within the set that explore other, more impossibly delightful things, such as: XYZYGY which is the coolest little love story of the sun and the moon; Samson and Delilah which takes the tale we thought we knew and puts an interesting spin on it; and Fundamental Forces which attempts to blow your mind with the fact that even though we feel as though we are touching, it is a scientific fact that we actually are not.

As I read through the collection, I remember finishing a poem and going "man, that was the best one yet" and then reading the next one and going "oh wait, no no no, THAT was the best one yet".... 

But don't just take my word for it. 

Have a listen as Amy sets the stage for her writing, and reads you the poem titled "Fever":

As an additional treat, 

I've got one copy of Amy's poetry book, Out of True, to give away internationally! 

So do be sure to leave a comment down below to get your name thrown into the hat for it! 

And I do mean a hat, literally. 

I love pulling names the old school way! 

The giveaway will end on Friday, October 26th... best of luck to you all!!

Amy Durant is a writer living in the Capital District of New York. She writes for her own blog, about much less serious things than her poetry would lead you to believe, and for Insatiable Booksluts, about all things bookish. She is currently the artistic director of Albany Civic Theater and the proud owner of a very unintelligent and chubby, but very lovable, Siamese cat.