Spectral Evidence

Praise:

Trista Edwards’ Spectral Evidence is haunting. Magic happens everywhere, in the mundanity of everyday life and in the space between silence and stillness. “The shadow of witch casts a spell” is a line early on in the collection that exemplifies and sets the tone for the collection. The poems feast on a variety of topics, from motherhood to rabbits to museums to Bach to cemeteries. Edwards is a masterful storyteller of a haunted landscape, with the poems focusing on the unknown around us as we try to survive the bleakness of life, and ourselves, and show us that we often wake from dreams and nightmares not just from sleep, but in these moments every day. I wake up wanting more.
—Joanna C. Valente, author of Marys of the Sea and editor
of A Shadow Map

If Spectral Evidence is a season, it’s Fall. These poems are a harvest. Trista Edwards’ debut collection is an intimate portrait of becoming and empowerment. Whether it’s saints, Salem, or shrikes, the speaker admits that they know “the emptiness of a mouth searching for salvation.” Yet, there is no emptiness here. This collection breaks open the natural world and out comes magic “scorching our hands.” These poems burn and burn.
—Jenny Sadre-Orafai, author of Book of Levitations, Malak, and Paper, Cotton, Leather

In Trista Edwards’ enchanting collection, the reader becomes a ghost of sorts, hovering in that liminal space where poet- ry and the macabre meet. This poetry is a blueprint toward another realm, where bats swoop and soft hands shuffl e tarot cards by moonlight. But where we are fed mood and beauty, we are also shown the magic of lineation and craft. Edwards’ ability to pull us into the darkness is anchored by her wise way with words. In this book, “We are left to make sense of shadows.” A beautiful collection worth reading in the eve’s golden light of autumn or during silent, bone-chilling winter mornings.
—Lisa Marie Basile, author of The Magical Writing Grimoire, Light Magic for Dark Times, Nympholepsy, and Apocryphal