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

56 pages, Paperback

Published January 16, 2018

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. They are the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). They hold a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, they now live in South Carolina with their spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls.

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