First glimpse of my upcoming illustrated collection of fantastical poetry

I'm very excited about a new project in the works, a collection of twenty-four of my science fiction, fantasy, and horror poems, illustrated by my immensely talented niece, Wendi Willett Nordell.

The poems were written in response to the First Lines challenge set by the former Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan, Gerald Hill, during poetry month (April) last year. Every weekday he sent, to all members of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, two lines of published poetry from Saskatchewan poets. The challenge was to create new work either incorporating those lines or responding to them.Much to my surprise (since I don't self-identify as a poet), I wrote a new poem for every day of the challenge, incorporating the two proffered lines. (Those original poems are still online at https://edwardwillett.com/2016/04/poetry-month-poetry-i-tumble-through-the-diamond-dust/).

Once the challenge was over, I realized I had quite a bit of poetry and I was quite happy with it, so I began thinking about putting it into book form. I immediately thought of having it illustrated, although it took me a while to realize the best person to ask to do that was Wendi. (What can I say. I'm slow sometimes.)

Publication details are still being worked out, and Wendi is still drawing up a storm, but I hope we might get this out sometime in the spring of 2018. I'm very excited by the artwork, and can't wait for the finished product! Check out two of the images below!