Poetry. PINK ELEPHANT is Rachel McKibbens's collection of beautifully crafted, emotionally searing poems depicting the fractured mythology of a family's tumultuous life. Picking up where Plath and Sexton have left off, McKibbens threatens the comfortable confines of confessional poetry with a take-no-prisoners surrealist and super-real edge. By creating a folklore out of brutality and violence (borne from misplaced or absent love) McKibbens ultimately locates both love and forgiveness, fearlessly placing them in their rightful home. McKibbens's PINK ELEPHANT is an audacious debut.

Author Hometown: ROCHESTER, NY USA



About the author: Rachel McKibbens was born in Ahaheim, California. She is a member and co-founder of the Right Coast Writers Brigade. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including World Literature Today, The New York Quarterly, and Bowery Women: Poems. Among other honors, she is a 2007 New York Foundation of the Arts Poetry Fellow, a Pushcart nominee, and the 2009 Women's Individual World Poetry Slam champion. She has read her work at universities, schools, galleries, and various other venues across the nation. She teaches poetry and creative writing across the country at all levels. An ex-punk rock chola with five children, Rachel lives in upstate New York with writer Jacob Rakovan and four of their children. PINK ELEPHANT is her first book.

Reviews:
author site
Barbara Jane Reyes @ Harriet the Blog
interview by Oscar Bermeo @ Letras Latinas Blog
self-interview @ The Nervous Breakdown
Kristina Bernard @ The Rumpus