Cover art “Bridge View” by Vincent Hawley
At home.
Photo credit: Tony Lagana
Along River Road, April 13, 2009 - One of my favorite iPhone photos from the many I’ve taken of the Delaware River over the years.
““...and then there were days when I yearned to be part of a writing community. And once I set my intentions on finding one, everything changed.””
Make Space
Make Space (Finishing Line Press, 2023) explores the complexities of loss, family ties, and resiliency.
The poems in this collection speak to the wisdom grief has to impart to us, as well as to the kinship we form with it.
Click here to read a poem from Make Space.
Available from Finishing Line Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
Order a copy today.
Reading at a New Hope Poets gathering.
Photo credit: Roy Wordsmith
Praise for Make Space
“…Make Space, is a stunning testament to loss and a keen reminder of hope and resilience. With masterful use of white space, Lagana creates luminous gems, with breathy and seemingly breathless interjections. Exploring the depths of grief and loss, and the dreamlike mosaic of healing, the speaker makes space for grief and memory, and even reconciliation and hope, in a tapestry woven by “What grief said.”
–Donna J. Gelagotis Lee, author of Intersection on Neptune and On the Altar of Greece
“Never have I seen a collection of poems where grief is gifted the space to speak, but Make Space gives us that and so much more. Make Space is full of tenderness and a grief that says “I won’t always interfere. / I promise….”
–C.T. Salazar, Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking (Acre Books 2022)
Normally, I prefer to read poems slowly, a few a day, savoring them over time, but I became so absorbed in that luminous world Lagana creates, the one where things are both achingly real and devastatingly beautiful, that I read it all in one sitting. This is a collection I know I will return to, as there is much to ponder and the writing is superb.
__ Jennifer Randall Hotz
About Me:
Poet and novelist (See recent publications.)
Author of the forthcoming chapbook, Edge of Highway and the poetry collection, Make Space.
Creative writing and poetry writing consultant
Essayist
Multi-genre writing workshop facilitator, Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) trained
Founder and former co-editor, River Heron Review, 2018 - 2023
Academic Supervisor (retired) of Art, English, and Music Freehold Regional High School District (FRHSD), 1996 - 2020
Ed.M (‘87), Educational Administration and Supervision from Rutgers University
Teacher of English and creative writing, FRHSD, 1983 - 1996
Pronouns: She / Her / Hers
Land Acknowledgement:
As a resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on land that is part of the traditional territory of the Lenni Lenape people.
