Sadness Workshop

by Stevie Edwards

Stevie Edwards' Sadness Workshop, a winner of the 2016 Button Poetry Prize, explores love, lust, womanhood, and vulnerability. Each poem is daring and honest, shattering cultural expectations and stereotypes. Edwards' refreshing and bold stance will appeal to readers everywhere.

Genres: Poetry

47 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 27, 2023

About the author

Dr. Stevie Edwards is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University and Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Stevie’s poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of The Weather Inside (University of Arkansas Press, 2026), Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). She holds a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, she now lives in South Carolina with her spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls. Her work has been supported by Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, SAFTA Firefly Farms, and Buinho Creative Hub.

Reviews

[Jennifer deBie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning little chapbook, full of sharp edges and soft images all brushed up against each other in the loveliest ways!

Look out for the titular "Sadness Workshop" that opens the collection, the hilarious "Letter of Resignation" that closes it, and the cutting "Rapists Seem Hurt by Being Called Their Names in Public" somewhere in the middle!

[Shanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadness Workshop is a collection of poems about loss, depression, capitalism, abuse, loneliness, beauty, and shared female experiences. While it has some very impactful pieces and lines--"pretty is just a dressed up way of saying prey"--it wasn't my favorite collection.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This woman gets me.

[Edmund Davis-Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, I think I will read it again in the future when in a different headspace.

Update: I liked it more this time. There is a very specific mood in this book that suits me in 2021.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacularly good. Both emotionally engaged and very sensual. Explicitly and coyly sexual in the best ways