It’s almost here! My new chapbook, Where There Is Ruin, will be out from Red Bird Chapbooks later this week! And today I’m revealing the cover!
The cover image is actually a detail from the painting Peace — Burial at Sea, by J. M. W. Turner (1842) (yes, that Mr. Turner).
It’s a perfect example of the Mevlana quote that inspired my title, “Where there is ruin, there is hope of treasure”: if you look at the original painting, of a steamer during the sea-burial of Turner’s friend David Wilkie, you might be so attuned to the ship — with its somber light surrounded by all that heavy smoke — that you wouldn’t even notice the tiny bird in the foreground sea, this quiet moment of release and freedom. But the folks at Red Bird Chapbooks spotted it, and it makes for a beautiful cover!
My chapbook will be out later this week, so stay tuned in the next couple of days for order information, promo material, and more Where There Is Ruin news!
Samuel Snoek-Brown 