Quarantine. Racial injustice. Wildfire. Chronic disease and pain. Amy Wray Irish wrestles with 2020 and beyond.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Hush and Naked for Tea.
Breathing Fire reads the way that fires move. These poems have an energy contained by craftsmanship and clear-headedness in the face of pandemic lockdown, private pain, social sickness and injustice. A confident, inspiring voice.
—Marjorie Power, Sufficient Emptiness
Breathing Fire is an impressive collection of poems, beautiful, fierce, bordering on rage, and yet crafted to contain moments of stillness and grace.
—Michael Henry, No Stranger Than My Own and Active Gods
Breathing Fire is both urgent and introspective. Irish’s poems burn and singe as she attempts to reinvent a way to navigate and thrive in a dangerous world.
—Kathleen Willard, Cirque & Sky and This Incendiary Season
The poetry in this collection was greatly influenced by the artwork of Madeleine Dodge, who has been a figure in Denver’s artist community for more than thirty years. The cover art is "Fire Season 5" from her 'Rust' series. To view her work, including the ‘Rust’ series that inspired this book, go to madeleinedodge.com.
Breathing Fire
Amy Wray Irish is a Colorado poet originally from the Chicago area. She received her MFA from the University of Notre Dame, then fled the Midwest for sunshine and mountains. Her most recent chapbook is The Nature of the Mother (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2019); her most recent work can be found in the anthology Thought for Food (South Broadway Press, 2020) and forthcoming in Chiaroscuro (Northern Colorado Writers, 2021). To read or listen to her poems, go to amywrayirish.com.
The poetry in this collection was greatly influenced by the artwork of Madeleine Dodge, who has been a figure in Denver’s artist community for more than thirty years. The cover art is "Fire Season 5" from her 'Rust' series. To view her work, including the ‘Rust’ series that inspired this book, go to madeleinedodge.com.