West Bloomfield, Michigan - September 27, 2023 - Fans of Diane DeCillis will not be disappointed in her latest poetry book - When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double. This is that rare book that is both funny and momentous. Her lyrical evocations of people and places are full of empathy, tenderness, and whimsical irony. Diane captures humanity in all its moods - no small task.
Although many of these poems investigate loss and heartbreak, this book is not about being a victim. It's about how people not only survive their most challenging moments but how they thrive in spite of them. These are poems about all of the ways one’s heart both helps and betrays during major life events: dealing with divorce, the death of a loved one, separation from those closest, or with the agonizing experience of memory loss.
Diane writes that loss can feel like one’s heart is limping "like a wounded animal / before you sink into the shelter of your own shadow." But with every loss in these poems comes rebirth-a beautiful, sensory-rich wildflower garden of new breaths and experiences. The character of the heart is depicted as a piece of human anatomy at the same time it's portrayed as its own world; an entire planet. Diane personifies the mitral, aortic, and pulmonary valves, describing all bodies as blooming with vegetation, a recursive image of living things thriving inside living things.
When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double takes readers on a journey of what it means to be fully human. It touches upon the gifts found in humor, nature, art, food, and how people celebrate the beauty of their scars. These are love poems: to others, to the self, to the body. Diane makes it clear that wounds need attention and care, but that loss always strengthens us. This collection will be admired by poetry lovers of all kinds, and those who enjoy modern and corporeal love poems.
About The Author:
Diane DeCillis, born in Detroit, Michigan, owned an award-winning art gallery for over 33 years. Her first poetry collection Strings Attached (Wayne State Univ. Press, 2014) has been honored as a Michigan Notable Book for 2015, won The 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award for poetry, and was a finalist for the Forward Indie Fab Book Award for poetry.
Her poems have been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, and Best American Poetry. Poems, short stories and essays have appeared in CALYX, Evansville Review, Minnesota Review, Nimrod International Journal, Connecticut Review, Gastronomica, Rattle and numerous other journals. Art, food, Lebanese culture, magic realism and the complexity of being human inform her poetry, essays and stories.
Reader Testimonials tell the story. This is what Michael Lauchlan, author of Trumbull Ave. (Wayne State University Press, 2015) Published On: 2020-11-11 had to say, “Diane DeCillis contains multitudes: paintings and hospital beds, and laughing, grieving voices. Her poems elucidate language itself, words in the act of being undressed-a mind in dialogue with a translator, a liar, and a lover. This remarkable volume carries 'a weight that lifts you / and buries you at once.”
Linda Nemec Foster, author of The Blue Divide, Talking Diamonds, and Amber Necklace from Gdansk Published On: 2020-11-11, had to say, “From Lady Baltimore to the Girl from Ipanema in Detroit-from Alfred Hitchcock's fear of eggs to Hokusai's 'Great Wave' at a poetry reading-the subjects in When the Heart Needs a Stunt Double are far-reaching and original. Diane DeCillis weaves her unmistakable magic in poems that are fierce and intelligent. She embraces the breadth of the world and the depth of the sky in this brilliant collection.”
For complete information, visit: https://dianedecillis.com/when-the-heart/
Media Contact
Company Name: Diane DeCillis
Contact Person: Media Relations
Email: Send Email
Phone: (248) 931-9334
City: West Bloomfield
State: Michigan
Country: United States
Website: dianedecillis.com/when-the-heart/
