Glitter Road

by January Gill O'Neil

“My poems brought me to Oxford, Mississippi, a.k.a. the velvet ditch: / a place you can fall into, get comfortable among confederate rebels” writes O’Neil in her bold new collection. Glitter Road looks back at the end of a marriage, loss, and a new relationship against the backdrop of a Mississippi season. She explores the history and legacy of Emmett Till, how his story is braided with hers, and how race binds us all together. These poems reclaim the vulnerable, intimate parts of a life in transition, and celebrates womanhood through awakenings, landscapes, meanders, and possibilities. She declares, “I am done telling the kinder story. I am a myth of my own making.”

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2024

About the author

January Gill O'Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road (2024), Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Glitter Road was a finalist for the 2024 New England Book Award. From 2012-2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Her poems and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, American Poetry Review, The Nation, Poetry, and Sierra magazine, among others. Her poem, “At the Rededication of the Emmett Till Memorial,” was a co-winner of the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award from the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. The recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O'Neil was the 2019-2020 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She currently serves as the 2022-2024 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

O'Neil earned her BA from Old Dominion University and her MFA from New York University. She lives in Beverly, MA.

Watch Glitter Road: A Poet's Journey with January Gill O'Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj_GC...

Reviews

[CB_Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thankful a friend lent me an ARC of this book. Her best work yet.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely enjoyed this. Been sitting in my ThriftBooks list for years and I finally got to it and I wish I would have earlier.

[H. C. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Regret nothing. Even as a glimmer of yourself catches you in the mirror like a stranger.”

[Kristin Delo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this collection because the cover is beautiful, and then ended up loving her imagery.
Her poem about Jazzfest? I could see, hear, taste and smell it.
Parts 2 and 4 were my favorites, but I wouldn't change anything. Really enjoyed this, I'm sure I'll reread it in the future.

[Quilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous.

[coco's reading]

DNF @ pg. 67.

Yes, I know I only had a handful of poems left, but I stopped really appreciating and enjoying them a little over halfway into the collection. The subject matter O'Neil tackles in many of her poems is powerful, especially her discussions on systemic racism in a state like Mississippi, where I'm from. I also found some of her structural choices, such as line breaks, extremely compelling. On the other hand, other structural choices felt gimmicky: once was unique, twice not so much. Looking at her work on a word- and image-level, I struggled to engage with her writing, which was definitely a me problem: poetry is generally more subjective than prose, so what didn't work for me will work for other readers.

all this time, I have been able
to balance my little life in my hands.
That I go through the turn
and keep landing on my feet
is a goddamn miracle.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about loss, identity, Emmet Till, surviving in the south, and hope.

from Autopsy: "I have forgiven myself / for saying that awful things people say // when they can't hear their own joy, / when anger becomes connective tissue, // when you looked at me like a stranger, / already estranged from this life to the next."

from Rebel Rebel: "My boyfriend traces his lineage back to slaveholders. His guilt is my kink. / What holds us together is not exactly love. Our bodies rise like rebels."

from Black Women: "Being a Black woman in America is a lesson on being. / Caretakers since the diaspora, we show up and show out, / deliver a nation: grieve and reclaim the forgotten names / along the way. We are this country's backbone yet our backs / are breaking."

[Lesley Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve admired all of O’Neil’s books but this is my favorite–mostly because it contains so many terrific poems, but also I’m impressed by how she weaves personal and public histories together, tones of anger and joy, and somehow makes the highly various tapestry shine. What holds it together is the mystery of how a person (and a country) gets from there to here: from cotton plantations to Ole Miss students vandalizing Emmett Till’s memorial; from widowhood through John Grisham’s bed to good sex. As she says in “Cartwheel,” “That I go through the turn/ and keep landing on my feet/ is a goddamn miracle.”

[Carla Panciera · Rating 5 out of 5]

January O'Neil's fourth collection interweaves the personal with the historical. Her language is vivid yet accessible. She can both wield the tools of a poet and invite readers into her world. These poems center around her time in Mississippi where she examines the legacy of the enslaved, the continuing tragedy of Emmet Till's death, the ghosts of a collective past and those of a personal one as well. Despite this backdrop, however, O'Neil's speaker brims with hope and opens herself up to love and beauty. A beautiful collection, well worth a read.

[Lauren Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

GLITTER ROAD takes the reader on a hike through the joys of life's new changes & chapters. In these poems, the speaker embraces a new chapter of her life after the loss of her life partner. With that, the speaker is transplanted to new soil: the American South. And we bear witness to the speaker's ways of growing anew: Black history, motherhood, Southern nature & landscape are all interwoven themes throughout the collection and I particularly enjoyed the speaker's brave steps toward a new identity and a new life with honesty and openness to her natural surroundings.

[Natalie T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid, deeply moving volume of poems from January Gill O'Neil that captures a full spectrum of human emotions and life as a Black woman in this time and place: love and joy, motherhood, mourning, connection to nature, and trauma ancient and new. Powerful poems about living in a society that murders Black people for sport sit side-by-side with tender recollections of what makes life precious and unique. "Walk into the day with your whole heart intact," O'Neil urges ("Regret Nothing"), and then she shows us the way. Magnificent.

[Margaret Kean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A joy to read. The writing is quiet, tender and clear as she addresses a range of topics from geography and history of the South, the personal and political, love and the extraordinary found in everyday experiences. Ms Gill O’Neil shows such perfect restraint in her writing that the reader gets to fill in what isn’t said. The poetic forms vary through the book, which makes the reading interesting. I also loved how she organized the poems. What a gift to read this!

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magisterial. Tender. Tough. Willing to speak truth to power and still have a magnanimous heart. These are poems that sear, salve, and provide solace, while remaining clear-eyed about the violence and pain African-Americans have endured in this country, and yet, and yet, still manage to have an open heart even if it breaks. This is a beautiful, stirring book of poems that deserves to be read by a wide audience.

[Marianne Mersereau · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in this collection about the death of Emmett Till are particularly powerful. I like how the author uses the Mississippi river as the primary image in the book and how the poems weave themselves throughout it much like a river. As someone who grew up in the South, I found the poems especially resonant and appreciate how they bring the history of the region to life and serve as important witnesses to that history.

[January O'Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best poetry collection I've read all year!

[Reagan Kapasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked: American South experience, especially odes to sexy bits and "Rebel Rebel" printed inverted. Disliked: my own perspective as a Canadian.

[Robyn]

Notables 2024 #171

[Aether · Rating 4 out of 5]

read most of this on a stationary bike!

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

good collection about the south, Emmett Till, romance, nature. So many topics covered beautifully.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uh oh, a Goodreads Author. Fear of honesty. Luckily I can say I find this book brilliant, not just literally in shimmering cover and title. Thank goodness I discovered O'Neil's work on that Oak Bluffs library shelf years ago. Although I think I would have discovered her work other ways by now. I think the last time I was east she was here reading in Seattle. I believe I have also ignored the due date on this new work, because as promised, its very cover glitters with Mississippi Meander Belt Map #7. I love that O'Neil (can I call you Jan yet?) admits in interviews that she's the poet. Allowing this distinction, for me, makes every piece more meaningful, and the collection itself a journey. The first pieces Autopsy and What's Left are starkly beautiful. The collection moves through to the time in the Deep South, and the juxtaposition of poems that are truly erotic, and those that are heartbreaking. Seattle writer, Dr. Georgia Dade, once said I can't seem to stop writing about Emmett Till. No one should ever stop writing about Emmett Till. As O'Neil writes in 4th section, "It's in the blood. It's in the soil." Meaning all of it. All of the past in the South. Thank you for "Glitter Road." Originally posted on May 30, 2024.

I need to add a post-script. The Seattle Public Library was hacked. Cybersecurity event. Disruption. Ransomware. Horribleness. For weeks now, no access to account, no holds...and this horrible shame. We have been asked not to return books because SPL couldn't check them back in. I've had the beautiful Glitter Road in my home for almost two months, not able to circulate. In lockdown on my coffee table. Who would do this to a library? Is it random? Who cares? It's truly an attack. Those who need to use computers at the library have been cut off. The librarians can't even print, and at my branch have had to share one laptop. If we wonder what could be lost without a free press, or personal liberty, the library attack is a preview, a warning that I hope will be heeded.