Cover image from STARTING A LIFE by Sam Hockaday
NAMING THE GHOST
“In Emily Hockaday’s stirring debut, Naming the Ghost, beauty and terror are never far apart. They appear like strangely familiar eyes gleaming through a child-proof window. ‘A temptation is not always/a desire. Right? Sometimes it is the darkest fear.’ Otherworldly, yet grounded in the dailyness of young motherhood—in baby wipes and brownie mix and queen-sized marital beds—the poems in this collection haunt and delight. They awaken the senses. They remind me that we are never, for better or worse, alone.”
—Jared Harél, author of Go Because I Love You.
“Naming the Ghost is a powerhouse of small, intense, sometimes brutal, always brilliant poems about a new mother who is (perhaps) experiencing post partum depression or simply old-fashioned depression. Either way, this amazing collage of poems tells a difficult story. Individual lines are memorable, quotable—‘My life is open to autopsy’ is only one of many. You can read it all at once (I did) or go through it slowly (as I will later), but either way it will leave a mark."
—Jane Yolen, author of 400+ books, whose adult book of poems--Kaddish—won the Sophie Brody Medal.
"Emily Hockaday’s debut collection, Naming the Ghost, is an immersive and unflinching gaze into the relationship between grief, motherhood, and loss. Finding revelation in the mundane, Hockaday's poems reverberate with the tension—and journey—toward healing." --Diana Marie Delgado, Tracing the Horse
CHAPBOOKS
BEACH VOCABULARY
Purchase the book here!
"The poems in Emily Hockaday’s Beach Vocabulary have an immense energy that require readers to jump in head first. Hockaday continuously draws readers in with her vivid imagery of nature—foxes, bays, bucks, etc. But it’s the context in which she places these images that allow this collection to enter a conversation that is much larger and more cosmic. A conversation that wrestles with the very emotions that connect us all."
Purchase the book here!
"The poems in Emily Hockaday’s Beach Vocabulary have an immense energy that require readers to jump in head first. Hockaday continuously draws readers in with her vivid imagery of nature—foxes, bays, bucks, etc. But it’s the context in which she places these images that allow this collection to enter a conversation that is much larger and more cosmic. A conversation that wrestles with the very emotions that connect us all."
SPACE ON EARTH
"The Milky Way. Splitting an atom. Glacious mountains. Skin cells. Emily Hockaday’s fourth chap collection, Space on Earth, is a journey examining space and scopes in and out of Earth.... I always treasure poetry which is self-aware, Frank O’Hara-esque, goes on the nerve and states out loud the internal struggles of arriving at the poet destination."
"The Milky Way. Splitting an atom. Glacious mountains. Skin cells. Emily Hockaday’s fourth chap collection, Space on Earth, is a journey examining space and scopes in and out of Earth.... I always treasure poetry which is self-aware, Frank O’Hara-esque, goes on the nerve and states out loud the internal struggles of arriving at the poet destination."
—Kristiane Weeks-Rogers, The Harbor Review
"I like a chapbook that has layers and a range of feelings. A title with a dual meaning helps, too. I don’t need a story or narrative, but a development of feeling is good. Here, “space” plays a big part . . . in terms of outer space, as well as the distance between things and people. There are boundaries. There are also Vikings (like the warrior queen on the front cover [above]) and frogs (back cover) and explorations of existential dread. Oh, and science. It’s really great and infinitely readable and enjoyable.
From 'Stories Our Bodies Tell':
'I said the moon is an open eye
but I was wrong. Tonight it is just
a crater-pocked satellite, lit along
the edge not obscured by
our shadow.'"
From 'Stories Our Bodies Tell':
'I said the moon is an open eye
but I was wrong. Tonight it is just
a crater-pocked satellite, lit along
the edge not obscured by
our shadow.'"
—Scott Sweeney, publisher at Grey Book Press
OPHELIA: A BOTANIST'S GUIDE
Out with Zoo Cake Press, Ophelia is a series of sonnets from Ophelia's perspective and botanical illustrations by Sam Hockaday.
OPHELIA is SOLD OUT, but Emily has a very few available. Reach out through the contact form to ask about purchasing one.
"You don’t have to be a botanist, or a Shakespearean scholar, to see the craft and beauty in these poems."
"It is as if Ophelia herself is detailing her thoughts, feelings, and histories about the plants while intellectually analyzing them and the roles they have played in her life. The combination of the two will leave readers a little smarter, and a little more emotional, than when they started."
Out with Zoo Cake Press, Ophelia is a series of sonnets from Ophelia's perspective and botanical illustrations by Sam Hockaday.
OPHELIA is SOLD OUT, but Emily has a very few available. Reach out through the contact form to ask about purchasing one.
"You don’t have to be a botanist, or a Shakespearean scholar, to see the craft and beauty in these poems."
"It is as if Ophelia herself is detailing her thoughts, feelings, and histories about the plants while intellectually analyzing them and the roles they have played in her life. The combination of the two will leave readers a little smarter, and a little more emotional, than when they started."
"...while Hamlet asks us to understand Ophelia through the language of flowers, Hockaday asks us to go a step further and understand Ophelia through the science of flowers themselves."
--Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, The Los Angeles Review
WHAT WE LOVE AND WILL NOT GIVE UP
"Love is the drug driving this [book]... sometimes slantwise, sometimes head on. Either way, it’s messy."
"Rooted in contemporary life, What We Love and Will Not Give Up makes new its most maddening and enduring subject"
"Love is the drug driving this [book]... sometimes slantwise, sometimes head on. Either way, it’s messy."
"Rooted in contemporary life, What We Love and Will Not Give Up makes new its most maddening and enduring subject"
--Angelina Ayers, Sabotage Reviews
"Hockaday redefines one’s perspective on human interaction through her brilliant writing. What We Love And Will Not Give Up certainly deserves a spot in your poetry collection."
—Lyle Carating, Blot Lit Reviews
STARTING A LIFE
"If one could actually read 'in between the lines' of a narrative, actually see the words and say them out loud, those lines may very well sound like these poems. In STARTING A LIFE, Emily Hockaday presents a critical time in a young woman's life—not as confession, happily, but as intimate musing, thought, reflection, and oblique anecdote. Rendered in the third person, the untitled pieces feel like a modern fairy tale where one false turn has led to a grove of loss. But not for long. A lovely collection."
"If one could actually read 'in between the lines' of a narrative, actually see the words and say them out loud, those lines may very well sound like these poems. In STARTING A LIFE, Emily Hockaday presents a critical time in a young woman's life—not as confession, happily, but as intimate musing, thought, reflection, and oblique anecdote. Rendered in the third person, the untitled pieces feel like a modern fairy tale where one false turn has led to a grove of loss. But not for long. A lovely collection."
--Kimiko Hahn, author of TOXIC FLORA
"Hockaday's voice is disarmingly honest and tender and brave throughout, and the collection progresses with a subtle, cumulative resonance and power. Here is a lovely, memorable debut."
--Deborah Landau, author of THE LAST USABLE HOUR and ORCHIDELIRIUM
"STARING A LIFE is one of the great subway books; it's put together like a train, with a pervert in every car. These poems move from one to the next leaving gaps and spaces that work to tell us the rest of the story. I love how these poems are holey and diaphanous like this while also stopping to stare very closely at the hairs on peoples' fingers."
--Matthew Rohrer, author of DESTROYER AND PRESERVER
POEMS
“View Over Harbor Hills Moraine” & “Duloxetine 20 mg,” Chronic Poets Anthology Forthcoming
“The Weight” & “Relapse,” Bellevue Literary Review Fall 2022
“What Attracted the Ghost,” Artemis Journal Fall 2022
“Body as Neural Network,” Rogue Agent Fall 2022
“Lies You’ve Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch,” Reckoning Fall 2022
“At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge,” Parks & Points Poetry Series April 2022
“Name this Body,” Salamander June 2022
“Body Before Extinction,” Writers Resist June 2022
“The Electric Air,” Slant May 2022
"The Baby Reaches for the Spoils,” Muddy River Poetry May 2022
“Red Shift” & “Anniversary,” Please See Me April/May 2022
“The Sound of the Ghost,” NationalPoetryMonth.co April 2022
“Household Mirages,” “In the Pine Grove” & “Last Breath,” Word City Lit March 2022
“Disappearing Act,” How the Ghost Got In,” &
“The Ghost Is Making Decisions,” Electric Literature January 2022
“Inside the Pumpkin” Tebat Bach December 2021
“The Ghost’s Departure” Cordite Review Fall 2021
“Memorial” The Fiddlehead Fall 2021
“The Apple Tree” The Maine Review Fall 2021
“Body on this Island” Cold Mountain Review Spring/Summer 2021
“Morning Thoughts on Reincarnation” & “Pain Theory” Cider House Review Spring 2021
“On Hubble Telescope’s Thirtieth Birthday” Alternative Field Winter 2021
“Your Astrological Sign” Literary Mama Fall 2020
"The Metamorphosis" The Freshwater Review Fall 2020
"On Hubble Telescope’s Thirtieth Birthday" Alternative Field Spring 2020
"Your Astrological Sign" Literary Mama Spring 2020
"Last Breath" Indolent Books May 2020
"I Throw my Daughter," "Nursing My Daughter," & "The Ghost Flies Low" Spring 2020
"Salt Marsh" Parks & Points April 2020
“Dream of Labor,” “The Ghost Is Back,” & “The Ghost Knows,” Spring 2020
"Class: Order: Family" and "Portrait of a Humpback" Gone Lawn Spring 2020
"When the Ghost Speaks" January 2020
“Final Goodbye,” “Shifter,” “Resurrection Spell” & “The Mechanics,” January 2020
"Offering" Soundings East Fall 2019
"Sunken Forest, Sailor's Haven" April 2019
"Distance" Harpur Palate Spring 2019
"Ghazal" Isacoustic Winter 2019
"Kenning" November 2018
"Moonless Night" Moonchild Winter 2018
“Parting” & “Golden Hour” Newtown Literary Winter 2018
“Triolet” The Hopper Summer 2018
“Mathematics of Safety” The Maine Review Summer 2018
“145 BPM” The Freshwater Review Summer 2018
“We Argue About Pluto” Salt Hill Journal Summer 2018
“Since Ejyafjallajökul Erupted” Stoneboat Spring 2018
“At Talisman, Barett Beach,” “To a Former Paramour,”
& “How We Got Here,” Calamus Winter 2018
"Walking Back from Cherry Grove at Midnight" Cosmonaut's Avenue June/July 2017
"Bisecting a Peach, Cleanly" Winter 2017
"Origin Story," "Frog Fears" &
"Universe Expanding Faster than Previously Thought..." Fall 2016
"Mating Ritual" Amethyst Arsenic Fall 2016
"Division" & "La Niña Year" Summer 2016
"Crabbing" Silver Birch Press Summer 2016
"Bedtime Story" Qu Literary Magazine Summer 2016
"Comfort" The Lindenwood Review Summer 2016
"Dream of Tom's Overdose," "We Look at Our Love" Newtown Literary Fall 2015
"LaGuardia Marina" Potomac Review Fall 2015
"Scattering Your Ashes" Day One November 5, 2014
"Cat Summer,” “Morning Debris” Freefall Magazine Fall 2014
“Heatwave,” “Amtrak at Twilight” Spoon River Poetry Review Spring 2014
“Shadow Puppets” Noctua Review Spring 2014
“Social Networking,” “The Problem with Doctrine,”
“Your Grandfather’s Wake,” “Valentine’s Day, the future” The Subterranean Quarterly January 2014
“Reflexology” Burningword January 2014
“The Retired Magician” The North American Review Fall 2013
“Remission,” “Long Purples,” “Likely Trauma” Stone Highway Review September 2013
“Trouble,” “McSheehan's” Newtown Literary Summer 2013
"Crabbing" Go Places July 2012
"Different Than Addiction" The Chaffey Review March 2012
“Kenny on Youtube,” “Genesis, footnotes” West Wind Review February 2011
“What is Left” Plainspoke Literary Review December 2010
“Funniest Home Videos,” “How to Survive,” “Space Junk" Pear Noir! January 2010
“The Weight” & “Relapse,” Bellevue Literary Review Fall 2022
“What Attracted the Ghost,” Artemis Journal Fall 2022
“Body as Neural Network,” Rogue Agent Fall 2022
“Lies You’ve Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch,” Reckoning Fall 2022
“At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge,” Parks & Points Poetry Series April 2022
“Name this Body,” Salamander June 2022
“Body Before Extinction,” Writers Resist June 2022
“The Electric Air,” Slant May 2022
"The Baby Reaches for the Spoils,” Muddy River Poetry May 2022
“Red Shift” & “Anniversary,” Please See Me April/May 2022
“The Sound of the Ghost,” NationalPoetryMonth.co April 2022
“Household Mirages,” “In the Pine Grove” & “Last Breath,” Word City Lit March 2022
“Disappearing Act,” How the Ghost Got In,” &
“The Ghost Is Making Decisions,” Electric Literature January 2022
“Inside the Pumpkin” Tebat Bach December 2021
“The Ghost’s Departure” Cordite Review Fall 2021
“Memorial” The Fiddlehead Fall 2021
“The Apple Tree” The Maine Review Fall 2021
“Body on this Island” Cold Mountain Review Spring/Summer 2021
“Morning Thoughts on Reincarnation” & “Pain Theory” Cider House Review Spring 2021
“On Hubble Telescope’s Thirtieth Birthday” Alternative Field Winter 2021
“Your Astrological Sign” Literary Mama Fall 2020
"The Metamorphosis" The Freshwater Review Fall 2020
"On Hubble Telescope’s Thirtieth Birthday" Alternative Field Spring 2020
"Your Astrological Sign" Literary Mama Spring 2020
"Last Breath" Indolent Books May 2020
"I Throw my Daughter," "Nursing My Daughter," & "The Ghost Flies Low" Spring 2020
"Salt Marsh" Parks & Points April 2020
“Dream of Labor,” “The Ghost Is Back,” & “The Ghost Knows,” Spring 2020
"Class: Order: Family" and "Portrait of a Humpback" Gone Lawn Spring 2020
"When the Ghost Speaks" January 2020
“Final Goodbye,” “Shifter,” “Resurrection Spell” & “The Mechanics,” January 2020
"Offering" Soundings East Fall 2019
"Sunken Forest, Sailor's Haven" April 2019
"Distance" Harpur Palate Spring 2019
"Ghazal" Isacoustic Winter 2019
"Kenning" November 2018
"Moonless Night" Moonchild Winter 2018
“Parting” & “Golden Hour” Newtown Literary Winter 2018
“Triolet” The Hopper Summer 2018
“Mathematics of Safety” The Maine Review Summer 2018
“145 BPM” The Freshwater Review Summer 2018
“We Argue About Pluto” Salt Hill Journal Summer 2018
“Since Ejyafjallajökul Erupted” Stoneboat Spring 2018
“At Talisman, Barett Beach,” “To a Former Paramour,”
& “How We Got Here,” Calamus Winter 2018
"Walking Back from Cherry Grove at Midnight" Cosmonaut's Avenue June/July 2017
"Bisecting a Peach, Cleanly" Winter 2017
"Origin Story," "Frog Fears" &
"Universe Expanding Faster than Previously Thought..." Fall 2016
"Mating Ritual" Amethyst Arsenic Fall 2016
"Division" & "La Niña Year" Summer 2016
"Crabbing" Silver Birch Press Summer 2016
"Bedtime Story" Qu Literary Magazine Summer 2016
"Comfort" The Lindenwood Review Summer 2016
"Dream of Tom's Overdose," "We Look at Our Love" Newtown Literary Fall 2015
"LaGuardia Marina" Potomac Review Fall 2015
"Scattering Your Ashes" Day One November 5, 2014
"Cat Summer,” “Morning Debris” Freefall Magazine Fall 2014
“Heatwave,” “Amtrak at Twilight” Spoon River Poetry Review Spring 2014
“Shadow Puppets” Noctua Review Spring 2014
“Social Networking,” “The Problem with Doctrine,”
“Your Grandfather’s Wake,” “Valentine’s Day, the future” The Subterranean Quarterly January 2014
“Reflexology” Burningword January 2014
“The Retired Magician” The North American Review Fall 2013
“Remission,” “Long Purples,” “Likely Trauma” Stone Highway Review September 2013
“Trouble,” “McSheehan's” Newtown Literary Summer 2013
"Crabbing" Go Places July 2012
"Different Than Addiction" The Chaffey Review March 2012
“Kenny on Youtube,” “Genesis, footnotes” West Wind Review February 2011
“What is Left” Plainspoke Literary Review December 2010
“Funniest Home Videos,” “How to Survive,” “Space Junk" Pear Noir! January 2010