Books

The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers (Fomite Press, 2023)-ELGIN AWARD NOMINEE

From the publisher:

The capricious world of relationships is something everyone has navigated, often wishing for a magic spell to release them from its hold. In The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers, Christine Butterworth-McDermott delves into these dark partnerings, using the symbolism of the natural world, particularly plants and their taxonomy, as metaphor. With references to myth and legend, science and history, these poems trace the dangers that arise from seduction, betrayal, and the need to find “pulp over pit.” Here, snakes slither, pomegranates are bitten, and forests burn. Yet, there is also a determination to embrace the “resilience of flesh and spirit.” Tethered birds are freed, dahlias mean “to survive,” and restorative limes are offered. While never shying away from trauma, and its effects, Butterworth-McDermott always encourages the reader to “blink at the new leaf, the green wood /visible beneath the bark of the vine.” While the world may be full of poison, the poems here are a salve.

Reviews

“The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers is a collection to savor, to inhabit, and to enjoy the immense craft evident in the poems and in the poem-making. Butterworth-McDermott interlaces her immense knowledge of plants and mythology in every poem. And while the collection as a whole exposes darker emotions, the reader also comes to understand that not only are we blessedly resilient, but much of that resilience lies in our own choices—whether to succumb to our baser instincts or choose better in action and word. The poem “Predictions” warns us: “We must be careful what magic / we practice, what heaven we intend…”  Alicia Elkort for Tinderbox Poetry Journal

“One of the most common fruits used for its imagery, the pomegranate, appears in the first poem of the collection, titled “I Hear You’re Sick of Pomegranates.” Perhaps the pomegranate’s inclusion at this stage, as well as the poem’s tongue in cheek title, is a sign of adolescence, signifying how typical it would be to compare a first love to a fruit as symbolically rich as the pomegranate. The tone, too, is accusatory and rough, saying, “You know that—even as you use / such empty words as tiresome, familiar, / predictable. You know that you would take / the fruit greedily, piece by piece, / and devour it, / if it were only offered by some soft hand.” Page by page, the speaker’s maturity increases, learning and adapting with each rotten fruit and wilted flower. By the final poem, Butterworth-McDermott’s reflections on her life and symbols have visibly ripened since the start, and it’s fascinating to watch her growth in this text.”  Izzy Astuto for Psaltery and Lyre

“McDermott skillfully treads the line between folklore and reality, connecting women across ages and eras through a heavy history of tender violences rolled sharp and sweet into verse that weaves and winds like a folklore in itself. Here, you, the reader, are acting as witness to the meeting of a strange court, one that trades in memory and imagination, fraught with the speaker’s distinct lexicon spilled across each page, a voice that is sure of itself and all the more impactful for it.”  Monica Robinson for The Spiral Bookcase.

“‘How brave can we be when broken?’ asks Christine Butterworth-McDermott in her gorgeous poetry collection The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers. Ordered with elegant precision, each “spell” flowers with myriad possibilities, answering this and other questions with a strong, sophisticated voice. It’s fitting that the cover of this compelling collection features a close-up of Persephone cradling a pomegranate (Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1874). Only this time, it’s the poet who has peeled the rind from the pomegranate; she exposes those ruby seeds, each poem a world of possibilities unveiled. With devoted attention, Christine uproots the bulbs of each beginning, plucks poisonous petals of betrayal, and scatters the seeds of hope in a new garden of her own making. The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers is about trauma, but it’s also about  triumph. A book of spellbinding beauty best savored with slow deliberation. – Carina Bissett, Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devestations

“The Spellbook of Fruit and Flowers, by Christine Butterworth McDermott, charms the reader with the language of plants to look at women’s lives, relationships, race, and history. The poems use fruits, herbs, and other vegetation as metaphors and objective correlatives for human situations, endowing the poetry collection with the magical power of an herbalist’s potion book.” Luanne Castle for Harbor Review.

“McDermott uses different fruits and different types of flowers throughout each of the poems as direct odes, or as tactics for symbolism, which gives the poems a fantasy and whimsical feel that will get your own creative brain moving.”  Madeline Mertz for Fairy Tale Magazine.

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Evelyn As (Fomite Press, 2019)

Matt Hart says “Evelyn As is a vivid, poetic account of the early life and career of late 19^th and early 20^th Century chorus girl, artists’ model, and actress Evelyn Nesbit. These dynamic, fraught, and textural poems provide a stunning and heartbreaking portrait of a life of stardom, violence, scandal, and survival, weaving together everything from the Persephone myth and Little Red Riding Hood to Rapunzel and Snow White—not to mention also gaze theory, the sometimes (wildly complicated) transformative power of art, and the roles we all play both willingly and un-. At its heart, Evelyn As is a compelling, gripping, and tragic blockbuster of a book, simultaneously cinematic, awe inspiring, and crushing.”

For further information about Evelyn Nesbit, please click “Evelyn As Exhibition.”

Reviews:

“Evelyn As. . .assembles snapshots of a life in order to serve as a source  of real light for those who may desperately need it–those who may still be trapped in the artificial glow of what they are manipulated into believing they are worth.”  Troy Varvel, Crab Orchard Review

“Evelyn As offers hope in its interrogation, in its willingness to confront these beasts and men and wolves, through the strength of women’s stories. It is both confession and apology, both love-letter and call to action, a book that will remind you of the importance of watching and listening to the vulnerable around you.”  Joy Clark, Arkansas International

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all breathing heartbreak (2019):

A chapbook of poems which includes work from Cider Press Review, Cimarron Review, Rattle, River Styx, Southeast Review, Tar River Poetry, and more.

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Woods & Water, Wolves & Women (2012):

Note: The author requests that you do not purchase this book from the current publisher.

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Tales on Tales: Sestinas (2010):

Gaylord Brewer asserts “Christine Butterworth-McDermott’s Tales on Tales is an eclectic chorus of literary voices. This is an engaging collection that probes what happened and questions why. There are stories to be set straight, and the speakers in these poems refuse to be silenced. From Hemingway to Du Maurier to Margaret Mitchell, in these accomplished sestinas no one’s safe.”