Kristen Reid publishes debut poetry collection, “Changeling”
January 1, 2025 – Today is the day! Local author Kristen Reid publishes Changeling, her debut poetry collection.
Although this is her first book of poetry, Kristen is already known in the writing world for her prose. Her collection of horror stories, American Appetites: and Other Stories (published October 23, 2022) deals with a myriad of monsters that exist at the heart of American history & culture. Now, she brings her knack for writing terrifying, yet familiar monsters into her poetry, weaving them into the realm of the personal, and creates a relatable experience for readers who will certainly see their own hearts reflected in her words.
As we enter into a brand-new year, Changeling is the perfect book to accompany you throughout the journey. Centering themes of reflection, growth & transformation, these poems provide insight and inspiration for anyone searching for the light within themselves during difficult and tumultuous times.
Keep reading to find out more about the book and how to purchase!
–About Changeling–
“Dancing with the dark fae of the woods—singing sorrowful songs of the sirens in the water—bursting forth from a tattered chrysalis like a rueful soul...
Changeling is a collection of dark Feminist poetry that invites the souls of the crepuscular forest to cling to the solace found in womanhood—drawing a moth to a flame of turmoil, rage, and, finally, REBIRTH.
Shed your smooth, marbled skin for sharp wings ripping from your back, and fly through the moonlit pines of the words of an existence not unlike your own. Find comfort in the fellow fae of the night, and break free from your glamored societal prisons. ”
“Changeling is both beautiful and ferocious. It speaks for women everywhere, illuminating our shared experience of growing up in a world that wants us to fear living in our own bodies. It shows us how one woman might scratch and claw and roar her way out of docile submission to the horrors.”
–About the Author–
Kristen Reid lives in East Tennessee with her black cat, Lestat de Lioncourt. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and the Humanities and her Master’s degree in Education at Tennessee Tech University. When she isn’t writing folk horror and weird western short stories, she’s working on her dark fantasy novels about monstrous women seeking revenge. She loves reading romance novels with a hot cup of tea, but there is no way she would ever actually write a romance novel… she loves killing her characters off and turning them into monsters too much for that to fly. You can find her other published works as well as her debut folk horror collection, American Appetites: and Other Stories, through her linktree. You can also follow her on Instagram for updates on her work @writerkristenreid.
–Excerpt from Changeling–
MOTHBALLS
Like lepidoptera,
we make up the backbones of hills
and mountains and the foundations of plains
and valleys of time—
the collective skippers of the Appalachian
minds
of women.
We ask a morbid request:
to pull them up
and put in a few drops of cyanoacrylate glue.
They’re like a toxic fungus
to trigger an immune response among us.
It is a symbol of the innate
ability to communicate
with the mental realm.
I push my broken nails deeper into the
floorboards
and eat holes into my clothes.
We ingest it, so that we eventually starve.
We start laughing in a way
we cannot control when we perform.
It remains trenchant, heartbreaking—
an uncanny valley metaphor
of our celestial
bodies expressing her anger, our anger, your
anger
of an ancestral
and inherited response.
⚘
–How to Purchase–
‘Changeling’ is available now in print and Kindle editions!
Click here for the Print Edition ($12 on Amazon)
Click here for the Kindle Edition ($6 on Amazon)
HAPPY READING
& HAPPY NEW YEAR!
𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘
With endless love & gratitude,
