Poetry. "In DOG GIRL, Heidi Lynn Staples dances on a tightrope strung between sense and nonsense, between adulthood and childhood, and the lyricism of her verbal acrobatics confounds and delights in the way only genuine poetry can. Staples takes the existing lexicon and wrenches words into position, then commands them to be other than what they were, much to the joy of her astonished reader" --Christopher Kennedy. The truth and beauty welcomed in DOG GIRL is that nothing lasts, nothing is complete, and nothing is perfect. Staples continues the Joycean, Steinian and even Shakespearean wordplay evident in her first book, channeling it through a dizzying collection of formal structures-"Janimerick" through "Decemblank," with haiku, sonnets, prose poems, nursery rhyme, and more. She draws her explicit subject matter from her own passionate and tumultuous marriage, her profound engagement with the nonhuman world, and a core-deep grief from a late-term pregnancy loss. Staples previously authored GUESS CAN GALLOP, which is also available at SPD.

Heidi Lynn Staples was a recipient of the New Issues Poetry Prize for Guess Can Gallop (New Issues--Western Michigan University, 2004), her debut collection of poems. Her second collection, Dog Girl, has been selected by Carolyn Forché for publication by Ahsahta press (Boise State University, forthcoming 2007). Her work has appeared in numerous U.S. literary journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2004, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Green Mountains Review, and Ploughshares. She lives in Rosslare Strand, Ireland with her husband and daughter.

Reviews and Other Links
http://www.bookslut.com/poetry/2007_11_011950.php
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2007winter/staples.shtml
http://tsky-reviews.blogspot.com/2008/06/heidi-lynn-stapless-dog-girl-reviewed.html
http://galatearesurrection10.blogspot.com/2008/07/books-by-jennifer-bartlett-brenda.html