Photo credits: Alfred Haymond
"The Loneliest Girl is a testament to resilience, including its limits, a testament to the will to rise above a childhood where a girl has to sit on a seat of shame, and made to believe it is her own creation. This is
the deft hand of the poet carving stone, not for the caress of water, but of the fiery blood that engraves stone. In lines with the radiance of silk on fire, Gale reveals an inner theater of transparency. These are poems that sing the world of song inside pain in a call for gentleness, for a meditative empathy toward the lonely girls in the world whose strength should inspire the searching of our own souls for what hurts us, as we see, in these poems, the courage a lonely girl must have to build the will to live."
the deft hand of the poet carving stone, not for the caress of water, but of the fiery blood that engraves stone. In lines with the radiance of silk on fire, Gale reveals an inner theater of transparency. These are poems that sing the world of song inside pain in a call for gentleness, for a meditative empathy toward the lonely girls in the world whose strength should inspire the searching of our own souls for what hurts us, as we see, in these poems, the courage a lonely girl must have to build the will to live."
—Afaa M. Weaver, author of Spirit Boxing
UNDER A NEON SUN
Three Rooms Press: April 23, 2024
Three Rooms Press: April 23, 2024
Unable to afford rent, Mia—a community college student—lives out of her car, cleaning houses of the well-to-do in the LA area to meet her shoestring budget. Then Covid hits. For people living in houses and apartments, with stay-at-home jobs, the pandemic was inconvenient. For Mia and her fellow housekeeper friends—all living in their cars—the pandemic destroys the source of their frugal income. Fortunately, gutsy, funny Mia is a determined survivor. After weeks of cutting her limited spending even further, missing meals along the way, her wealthy employers become desperate for her services again. This time, she's determined not to let them take advantage of her as they have in the past. Her newfound confidence gives her new hope, until she discovers a dead body in a room she was assigned to clean. Sally Rooney meets Elizabeth Strout in this gripping page turner debut novel.