Join us to celebrate the launch of two Portland poets’ debut collections — You Can Call It Beautiful by Debra Elisa and Cormorant by Elisa Carlsen.
Debra Elisa
Debra Elisa’s You Can Call It Beautiful, MoonPath Press, is a mosaic of joy and grief, offering glimpses into loss and trauma that shape a family and travel that can open us up to wonder. It is a collection of free verse with the occasional sonnet and ekphrastic poems that celebrate the art of others and reflect on what keeps the human spirit growing. These are poems of ecology. They call us to live more graciously and consciously with the earth and all beings.
Debra Elisa explores joy and sorrow, grief and ecstasy through poetry and fiction and leads workshops inviting others to write and discover. She loves to lose herself in her backyard garden, along the coast, and in lush forest. Her writing has appeared in Kosmos, Oyez Review, VoiceCatcher, and other journals. She co-hosts The Humble Poets Open Mic @ The Stacks on Last Sundays. You Can Call It Beautiful is her debut collection of poetry. Debra Elisa
Elisa Carlsen
Elisa Carlsen’s Cormorant, Unsolicited Press, is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of double-crested cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it. To support wildlife, all profits from this book will be donated to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
Elisa Carlsen (she/they) grew up in Humboldt County, Nevada. They are an outsider poet and artist whose work has appeared in SixFold, VoiceCatcher, Anti-Heroin Chic, Nevada Arts Council, and Oranges Journal. Elisa won the Lower Columbia Regional Poetry Contest and was a finalist for the Editor’s Prize at Harbor Review. Elisa is a poetry editor for New American Press. Cormorant is her first published poetry collection. CORMORANT by Elisa Carlsen (unsolicitedpress.com)
