Coming Soon: Ghost Dogs, by Dion O'Reilly
Praise for Ghost Dogs
Ghost Dogs, Dion O’Reilly’s fine first poetry collection, will haunt you the way art should. Bristling with pain, wit, desire, and tenderness, these poems investigate not only “the daily harms” of an abusive childhood, but the deep solace non-human animals can offer. In vivid, sensual detail, O’Reilly conjures her companions: mastiffs with “sad, sagging faces,” a beloved chestnut mare’s “glowing coat,” a green parrot who has managed to “fill a space in the chaos.” She doesn’t sugarcoat or flinch from suffering—her own or others’—she transforms it. Line by crackling line, image by unforgettable image. Contemplating her bruised knees in the poem “Given,” she asks, “Is there a way to make it wonderful?” Ghost Dogs provides us an answer, a resounding yes. —Ellen Bass
Ghost Dogs, Dion O’Reilly’s fine first poetry collection, will haunt you the way art should. Bristling with pain, wit, desire, and tenderness, these poems investigate not only “the daily harms” of an abusive childhood, but the deep solace non-human animals can offer. In vivid, sensual detail, O’Reilly conjures her companions: mastiffs with “sad, sagging faces,” a beloved chestnut mare’s “glowing coat,” a green parrot who has managed to “fill a space in the chaos.” She doesn’t sugarcoat or flinch from suffering—her own or others’—she transforms it. Line by crackling line, image by unforgettable image. Contemplating her bruised knees in the poem “Given,” she asks, “Is there a way to make it wonderful?” Ghost Dogs provides us an answer, a resounding yes. —Ellen Bass
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Dion O’Reilly has lived most of her life on a small farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Her writing appears in such journals as The Massachusetts Review, New Letters, Sugar House Review, Rattle, and Bellingham Review. Her work has also appeared in a number of anthologies, including the Terrapin Books anthology A Constellation of Kisses. Her work has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. An earlier version of Ghost Dogs was a finalist for the Catamaran Poetry Book Prize. She received her MFA from Pacific University. Ghost Dogs is her debut full-length collection.
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