books – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: talking trash with Benjamin Drevlow

A Q&A with the author of ‘Trash Poems for Trash People’ and editor of BULL.

Content warning: strong language.

Reading Benjamin Drevlow‘s new collection of poems/pomes, Trash Poems for Trash People, put me in remembrance of my grandfather who, on walks home from his job at the shoe factory, had a habit of picking up items others left on the curb and bringing them home, thinking he might somehow find a use for them. The idiom “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” also sprang to mind as I read through this collection. That phrase aligns with the opening words of this volume’s epitaph:

Trash only becomes trash if you throw it away

Let it grow and clutter and climb and spread wings and fly.

Suddenly it becomes the hot new home decor.

Like some weird sort of alchemist, Drevlow, who is also the editor-in-chief of a great literary magazine called BULL and the author of several other books, turns trash into treasure with the poems in this collection. At least I think it’s treasure. Does that make me one of the trash people? If the old, discarded boot someone tossed at a dumpster and missed fits this misfit…

Read on to learn more about his reasons for writing this book, his work at BULL, his influences, his teaching gig at Georgia Southern University, and more.

Friday Five: Faith-Ann Dalton on her memoir of faith

A Q&A with the author of the raw, unflinching pro-life memoir ‘In This House We Lived’

The subtitle of Faith-Ann Dalton‘s debut book In This House We Lived–“A Faith Journey of Choosing Life Again and Again”–is more than a play on her first name. The memoir, which comes out May 8, is a raw and moving account of this first-time author’s struggles to move from a harrowing childhood through an unplanned pregnancy and many other personal trials to establish a life centered around her faith in God and herself.

Cover image of Faith-Ann Dalton’s memoir, *In This House We Lived*. Image via Anointed Colony Media.

The publisher, Anointed Colony Media, describes In This House We Lived as “a raw, redemptive memoir of trauma, crisis, faith, and the slow, intentional construction of healthy habits. “

“With unflinching honesty and hard-won clarity, Dalton traces her story of becoming a mother before she was ready, learning to choose herself without abandoning her soul, and discovering that healing doesn’t always mean getting it right—it’s about refusing to give up.”

Now a licensed cosmetologist, married, and a mother of four, Faith-Ann lives in St. James, Missouri.

Read on to learn more about Faith-Ann and her memoir. But first, please read this disclaimer: