Description
Book SynopsisUnapologetically sensual and forthright, Bell explores desire, loss, faith, doubt, tenderness, and violence; and sex as experience, metaphor, and magnifying lens for relationships.
Bright Stain may or may not become the Sex and the City of poetry, but this knock-your-socks-off debut will likely inspire debate—perhaps controversy―as it inhabits some startling points of view, including those of pedophile priests, serial killers, and prison inmates. Those who miss reading these breathtaking, visceral poems won’t know what their friends are raving about.
*FINALIST in Poetry for the Washington State Book Awards*
Trade ReviewPoetry Matters Interview with Francesca Bell on her poetry book Bright Stain.
Video by Blank Verse Films of Francesca Bell's poem "You Can Call Me Ma'am".
Excerpted in Women's Voices for Change.
Interview with Max Sessner on Body Literature.com
Conversation with Lisa Higgs in The Adroit Journal
Translation in B O D Y Magazine
Featured in Los Angeles Review of Books
Featured in RATTLE Magazine
"Beware: Bright Stain is an addictive read, almost impossible to put down once started." —Scott Neuffer, Shelf Awareness
"A penetrating collection of ruthless, unapologetic poetry." —Kirkus Reviews
"How deeply gratifying to see Francesca Bell’s electric, erotic and completely ravishing debut collection, Bright Stain, at last in the world. For the past ten years she has been writing some of the most charged, subtle and yet devastating poems in American poetry. Many of these dramatic vignettes are laced with a rare sexual candor and a whip-smart emotional intelligence. Bright Stain is one of the most darkly elegant and luminous books of recent years; it is, in all ways, truly a wonder." —David St. John
"Unflinching, tender, and sensual, the poems in Francesca Bell's, Bright Stain reach straight for the aorta and never let go. The poet asks nothing less than to face oneself honestly, yet with compassion." —Sherry Smith, Rhino
"Francesca Bell’s poems are fierce and tender, passionate, compassionate, disturbing and delightful. Wide-ranging, finely-honed, smart and surprising, Bright Stain is a compelling debut collection!" —Ellen Bass
"Francesca Bell's first book of poetry...reflects a dark universe in which sexual pleasure and pain are intricately linked....This debut collection is impressive for its distinctive voice and pungent imagery." —Meryl Natchez, Zyzzyva
"Bright Stain (Red Hen Press, 2019) is not a book for the faint of heart. In Bell’s debut work, the reader will need to brace herself not only in regard to subject matter, but also to Bell’s deft lines, images, and unexpected narratives." —Poetry Matters
"Your debut collection, Bright Stain, is a hard-hitting commentary on want and—like its title—is a dichotomy offering an oftentimes unsettling look at what is bright in our world and what is a stain." —Lisa Higgs, The Adroit Journal
-- Scott Neuffer
