Susan Sample’s Poetry Collection: Both Fearless & Vulnerable

Book ReviewsNew BookWriting
Written By Cindy Fazzi

Trapped in the Bone-House by Susan J. Sample, published by Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 70 pages, Jan. 2023

Susan Sample has reached new heights as a poet in her latest book, Trapped in the Bone-House.  She writes about some of the most difficult things in life — illness, dying, death, loss, and grief — with both fearlessness and vulnerability.

In the titular poem, the strain of caring for her ailing father who likens his condition to a house arrest is evident when she writes, “We are both, I’d think, trapped in the bone-house.”

Sample is equally bold when writing about the joy of loving and living. In Woman Found, she embraces her identity as “Ona, grand and strong.” She celebrates her young grandson when she writes, “For we are alike creatures, exquisitely afloat in the fullness of as yet.” Read this book — you’ll be rewarded with the author’s generosity as a writer who gives the deepest part of herself in every poem.

Learn more about Susan J. Sample. To order a copy, visit Main Street Rag Publishing.

Read another book review:

E.P. Tuazon’s Story Collection Turns the Ordinary into Surreal

Cindy Fazzi

Cindy Fazzi is a Filipino American writer and former Associated Press reporter. She has worked as a journalist in the Philippines, Taiwan, and the United States. Her historical novel, My MacArthur, was published by Sand Hill Review Press in 2018. Her contemporary thriller, Multo, will be published by Agora, an imprint of Polis Books, in June 2023. Her articles have appeared in Electric Literature, Catapult, Forbes, and Writer’s Digest.

https://cindyfazzi.com
Previous

Writing Genre Fiction to Say Something Other Than the Plot 
Next

E.P. Tuazon’s Story Collection Turns the Ordinary into Surreal