BROKEN KINGDOM

BY MICHELLE BITTING

WINNER OF THE 2018 CATAMARAN POETRY PRIZE

“Michelle Bitting is an original, no one writes quite like she does with her lush, ruminative excursions into the female psyche, into myth and the bliss and fragility of domesticity, blithe forays into sex, gender, politics, religion and what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother, a teacher and a poet striding into the kingdom, breaking every window, blowing open every door.”  ~Dorianne Laux

“There is a sense in Michelle Bitting’s Broken Kingdom that the poet is announcing the advent of something both gorgeous and horrific. It’s very much a book for our time. Repeatedly, these poems astound me with the power of their pronouncements and with their new and voltaic use of language. Broken Kingdom restores my faith that life can be miraculous, even when—or especially when—it’s as mundane as a father and son unstopping a clogged bathroom sink.” ~Zack Rogow

Broken Kingdom has a subtle humor that looks disaster square in the face and still laughs. This book also has a prophetic note. There is a sense that the poet is announcing an apocalypse that is tawdry and breathtaking at the same time. Broken Kingdom is very much a book of this era when blessings can sit side-by-side with what often feels like damnation. Michelle Bitting’s exceptional manuscript of impressive and accomplished poems, including a half-crown of sonnets, won the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize for poets living in California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, or Alaska.