NEXT TIME YOU COME HOME is available for pre-order directly from the press: https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/next-time-you-come-home/

“A newly recovered trove of letters is the source material for Next Time You Come Home, but the collection’s true genius lies in the communion of mother and daughter across time. In distilling her late mother’s letters to their loving essence, Lisa Dordal focuses not on the “nighttime mother” who drank until her speech was slurred but on the vibrant, nurturing “daytime mother” who taught her how to love the world. This is a radical compassion that heals, offering understanding without excuses or justifications, love without benchmarks or conditions. From its haunting title onward, Next Time You Come Home is an utter original.”

~Margaret Renkl, author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

Lisa Dordal received a Master of Fine Arts (in poetry) from Vanderbilt University in 2011 and a Master of Divinity, also from Vanderbilt, in 2005. She currently serves as Writer-in-Residence in the English Department at Vanderbilt.

Lisa is a Pushcart Prize and Best-of-the-Net nominee and the recipient of an Academy of American Poets University Prize and the Robert Watson Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Image, RHINO Poetry, Narrative, Great River Review, Best New Poets 2015, The Sun, Cave Wall, Bellevue Literary Review, CALYX, Ninth Letter, Rove Poetry, The Greensboro Review, Vinyl Poetry, storySouth, Connotation Press, and The Feminist Wire.

Her first full-length collection of poetry, MOSAIC OF THE DARK, was a finalist for the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and is available from Black Lawrence Press or wherever books are sold. Her second full-length collection, WATER LESSONS, was listed by Lambda Literary as one of their most anticipated books for 2022, and is also available from Black Lawrence Press or wherever books are sold.