Description
Poetry. California Interest. In ALKALI SINK, Stella Beratlis's debut poetry collection, themes of family, loss, and the natural world weave together to create a universe of dichotomies at once dangerous and intimate, walking the line between the catastrophic and the sublime. Beratlis's poems, rooted in her family's Greek culture and the culture of California's Central Valley, deftly maneuver between worlds as familiar and exotic as the mustard greens her immigrant mother gathers along an interstate highway. These poems transform ordinary acts—bird-watching, cooking, cleaning a sofa, taking a road trip—into extraordinary ones. With its startling imagery and touches of wry humor, ALKALI SINK brings us an exciting and original new poetic voice.
Author Bio
Stella Beratlis grew up in a second-generation Greek- American family in Northern California. Her first collection of poems, ALKALI SINK, was published by Sixteen Rivers Press in 2015. Her second collection of poetry, DUST BOWL VENUS" POEMS (2021) is also published by Sixteen Rivers Press. Her work has also appeared in numerous journals, including Harbor Review, Penumbra, Song of the San Joaquin, In-Posse Review,and California Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies THE PLACE THAT INHABITS US: POEMS FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY WATERSHED (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010) and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology (Story Streets, 2020). She is coeditor of the collection More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets (Quercus Review Press, 2011) and served as the poet laureate of Modesto from 2016-20. Beratlis lives in Modesto and is a librarian there.
Author City: MODESTO, CA USA