Books by Stacey Balkun

Mid/South Sonnets

by C.T. Salazar, Casie Dodd, Brandon Amico, JC Andrews, Susan April, Stacey Balkun, Makalani Bandele, Anna Lena Phillips Bell, Andrea Blancas Beltran, Ellie Black, Darrell Bourque, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Justin Carter, Michelle Castleberry, George David Clark, Adam Clay, Christian J Collier, Dorsey Craft, Brody Parrish Craig, Hannah Dow, George Drew, CD Eskilson, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Beth Gordon, Maggie Graber, David Greenspan, Andrew Hemmert, Raye Hendrix, Maggie Rue Hess, Faylita Hicks, Erin Hoover, Randall Horton, SG Huerta, T.R. Hummer, Jules Jacob, Bethany Jarmul, Grant Matthew Jenkins, Edison Jennings, Ashley M Jones, Carol Parris Krauss, T.K. Lee, Steven Leyva, Aurielle Marie, Landon McGee, Benjamin Morris, Caleb Nolen, Mónica Teresa Ortiz, Alison Pelegrin, Samuel Prestridge, Suzanne Underwood Rhodes, C. T. Salazar, Celeste Schueler, Gerry Sloan, Cody Smith, Tom Snarsky, Nathan Spoon, Colin James Sturdevant, Hiba Tahir, Nikki Ummel, Damien Uriah, Clara Bush Vadala, John Vanderslice, Cassandra Whitaker, Jim Whiteside, Marcus Wicker, Matthew Wimberley, Marianne Worthington, Jianqing Zheng

Mid/South Sonnets brings together sixty-six poets with ties throughout the American South. From Oklahoma to Florida-with larger clusters of work from the more centrally located Mid-Southern states, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee-the states represented through these writers offer a wide range of landscapes and perspectives that speak to the region's eclectic nature. While this anthology includes many conventional and experimental approaches to the sonnet form, each poem ultimately enacts an attempt to struggle through the anxieties of home in the hope of finding a place to love and belong.

Featuring:
Rasha Abdulhadi
Brandon Amico
JC Andrews
Susan April
Stacey Balkun
makalani bandele
Anna Lena Phillips Bell
Andrea Blancas Beltran
Ellie Black
Darrell Bourque
Wendy Taylor Carlisle
Justin Carter
Michelle Castleberry
George David Clark
Adam Clay
Christian J. Collier
Dorsey Craft
Brody Parrish Craig
Hannah Dow
George Drew
CD Eskilson
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Beth Gordon
Maggie Graber
David Greenspan
Andrew Hemmert
Raye Hendrix
Maggie Rue Hess
Faylita Hicks
Erin Hoover
Randall Horton
SG Huerta
T. R. Hummer
Jules Jacob
Bethany Jarmul
Grant Matthew Jenkins
Edison Jennings
Ashley M. Jones
Carol Parris Krauss
T. K. Lee
Steven Leyva
Aurielle Marie
Landon McGee
Benjamin Morris
Caleb Nolen
mónica teresa ortiz
Alison Pelegrin
Samuel Prestridge
Suzanne Underwood Rhodes
Celeste Schueler
Gerry Sloan
Cody Smith
Tom Snarsky
Nathan Spoon
colin james sturdevant
Hiba Tahir
Nikki Ummel
Damien Uriah
Clara Bush Vadala
John Vanderslice
Cassandra Whitaker
Jim Whiteside
Marcus Wicker
Matthew Wimberley
Marianne Worthington
Jianqing Zheng

Sweetbitter

by Stacey Balkun, Stephanie Danler

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A thrilling novel of the senses and a coming-of-age tale, following a small-town girl into the electrifying world of New York City and the education of a lifetime at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan. • "Brilliantly written.... Outstanding." —The New York Times Book Review

Newly arrived in New York City, twenty-two-year-old Tess lands a job working front of house at a celebrated downtown restaurant. What follows is her education: in champagne and cocaine, love and lust, dive bars and fine dining rooms, as she learns to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing life she has chosen.

The story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, set against the glitzy, grimy backdrop of New York’s most elite restaurants, in Sweetbitter Stephanie Danler deftly conjures the nonstop and high-adrenaline world of the food industry and evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, and the fragility and brutality of being young and adrift.

Sweetbitter

by Stacey Balkun, Stephanie Danler

Stacey Balkun's debut full-length collection, Sweetbitter, is an examination of youth, gender, sexuality, and yearning at an atomic level. The collection reads like a fever dream as Balkun uncovers the radioactive darkness that hides beneath the earth's surface and how it seeps into the lives of those who come near. The speaker takes us with them into the wilderness, wanting the world to be perceived differently, begging to be seen as more. From sapphic longing and poisoned baptisms to contaminated bodies and the gendered erosion of autonomy, Sweetbitter is the product of a restless coming-of-age story. In it, puberty is swimming in a toxic pond and recklessness is disguised as control. With Balkun's hazy, dream-like storytelling, the speaker is a wild creature challenging the social confines of being human, being girl. Sweetbitter is a gripping, sometimes suspenseful, poetry collection that leaves you hungry for more.

Sweetbitter

by Stacey Balkun, Stephanie Danler

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A thrilling novel of the senses and a coming-of-age tale, following a small-town girl into the electrifying world of New York City and the education of a lifetime at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan. Perfect for readers of Kitchen Confidential and Blood, Bones and Butter.

Twenty-two, and knowing no one, Tess leaves home to begin her adult life in New York City. Thus begins a year that is both enchanting and punishing, in a low-level job at "the best restaurant in New York City." Grueling hours and a steep culinary learning curve awaken her to the beauty of oysters, the finest Champagnes, the appellations of Burgundy. At the same time, she opens herself to friendships--and love--set against the backdrop of dive bars and late nights. As her appetites sharpen--for food and wine, but also for knowledge, experience, and belonging--Tess is drawn into a darkly alluring love triangle that will prove to be her most exhilarating and painful lesson of all.

Stephanie Danler deftly conjures the nonstop and purely adrenalized world of the restaurant--conversations interrupted, phrases overheard, and suggestions below the surface. Evoking the infinite possibility of being young in New York with heart-stopping accuracy, Sweetbitter is ultimately about the power of what remains after disillusionment, and the wisdom that comes from experience, sweet and bitter.