Mary Branan at BookWoman [Reading Preview]

Image from 1st World Publishing

Mary Brannan at BookWoman
Sunday, February 27
BookWoman (918 W. 12th St.)
Free, 3:30pm
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If you’re hurting for literary culture tomorrow afternoon, say around 3:30, consider heading over to Austin’s own feminist bookstore, BookWoman, for a reading and signing with Bastrop poet Mary Branan. She’ll be reading from her much-lauded book “Weavings,” winner of the Blue Light Press 2010 award, and will graciously sign copies thereafter.

Branan’s work bears the tool marks of a poet keen on self-awareness, self-actualization. Her poems, in their quiet chronicling of experience, derive their strength precisely from their honesty, evidence of her decidedly direct sensibility and attention to craft. To its credit, “Weavings” seems aware that many of its themes are not unique to the larger body of poetry, treating the often tired, archetypal subjects (think life, death, family) lesser poets lean on for mere airs of substance with enough due care and directness to make them new. This is something worth thanking her for (in person, we might add).

If hearing accessible, unencrypted poetry from a local author sounds like a welcome chapter in your Sunday afternoon - dare we say it should - look no further. Poetry is cool. Trust us.