NEW AUGUST 2024
“In this vibrant, genre-bending memoir, Sophie Hall asks, ‘How do I define my upbringing?’ This collection of lyric meditations does so by reveling in the senses: smells, tastes, sounds all rise up off the page to ignite the reader’s imagination. greenhouse is a tour-de-force, and Sophie Hall is a writer to keep your eye on.”
—Brenda Miller, author of A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form “Harrowing and tender, alternately sweet and devastating, greenhouse indelibly narrates—through poetic prose and dream-possessed poems—a West Virginia childhood of divorce and anti-capitalism and poverty where a fallen satellite dish becomes the family swimming pool and a child makes a generator from lawn mower parts to provide power. Funny, smart, unpitying and unflinching, this book is a riveting and compulsively readable hybrid bildungsroman of American life. ‘I am most at home in what is ugly,’ Hall begins. She’s also most at home in this startling debut’s heartbreaking beauty.” —Bruce Beasley, author of Prayershreds “Sophie Hall’s greenhouse pulls us into the soft and buzzing interior of childhood, into a world full of Slim Jims and frozen pizzas in snow and Heluva Good! cheese and saltines. greenhouse beautifully lingers in the complicated folds of memory, place, class, foodways, love, and family—as Hall writes, ‘this place is so full.’ Ladled with hybrid curiosity and playful form, each piece brims with succulent synesthesia: ‘Goldfish stiffened in winter and shook off the pause the next season.’ This is a glowing debut by a tender and talented storyteller, reimagining how we see home ‘until the world is golden.’” —Jane Wong, author of Overpour & How to Not Be Afraid of Everything 96 pages | A5 5.83 x 8.27 in. | 2024 ISBN-13: 978-1-958600-09-2 (paperback) $15 |
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Sophie Hall writes about homes and fears, especially where the two overlap. Her poems and essays have appeared in Passengers, Yalobusha Review, Nat. Brut, and RUBY, among others. She grew up in West Virginia and currently lives in Washington. These days, Sophie is most dedicated to her dream journal. Find her on Instagram @sophieuhmanda or online at sophiehallwriter.com.