BLEED ALMOND

This is an ambitious, confessional poetry sequence centered on alcoholism, hospitalization, recovery, relapse, queer identity, and the struggle to rebuild a life. It recalls the tradition of poets such as Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, and, in its documentary honesty, Ocean Vuong, while maintaining its own contemporary voice. It reads less like a collection of separate poems than as a memoir in verse. Why I Don't Go Outside I've been told my range is the tragic And I only write about myself. Well here are some current events: Two doors down from where I live A 14 year kid old shot an adult, aged 35, Six times and killed him. With the help of a 19 year old I stack the numbers like Legos or lipsticks or cuts on my legs. 2 - 14 - 35 - 6 - 19 I could play the lotto with this.Andrea Lambert Fritz is a queer writer, multimedia artist and digital creator with Schizoaffective Disorder. Themes of abjection, mental illness, the transgressive and the occult inhabit her work. Author of Jet Set Desolate, Scaffolding, Neon Hysteric and other books. Anthologies: Avalanches of Poetry III, Golden State 2017, Impact and elsewhere. Writing in Blanket Sea, The Because Better Project, OCCULUM and elsewhere. Lives in Reno with her husband and cats. andreaklambert.com.