Award-Winning Poetry Collection “The Weight of Snow” Coming September 1st from Smooth Stones Press

I’m elated to say that I recently signed a book deal for my debut poetry collection, “The Weight of Snow” with Smooth Stones Press! 

It will be available September 1st in hardback, then on October 1st for paperback and eBook.

In 2014, “The Weight of Snow” won finalist in the poetry category of both the International Book Awards and the USA Best Books Awards. It was also a finalist in the poetry category in the San Francisco Book Festival. A large number of poems were published in dozens of literary journals and magazines, including The Wayfarer (where I was named featured poet), The Monterey Poetry Review, Avocet, and more.

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“There is nothing to say that would be as lyrical and eloquent as this poet’s language. She writes as a daughter of California’s wild places. Words lift the edge of ordinary and invite the reader to journey through vivid and vulnerable landscapes. Bri Bruce’s explorations do not shy away from a world where snow can sometimes be ash, or love can be cloaked in loss. Make space, Gary Snyder, Jane Hirshfield, and Ellen Bass, there is a new poet climbing and swimming her way up to claim her place among you.”
—Karen K Lewis, Author and Executive Director of Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference

“The poems in The Weight of Snow are heartfelt, skillfully written, and keenly observed fragments of the natural world and our lives there. Bravo.”
—Gary Young, Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, Award- Winning Author of No Other Life, Braver Deeds, and Pleasure

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FRAGILITY

From my mother
I learned how wine swims in the vein,
what happens when the vaquita dies,
how to boil meat from bone
to make chicken soup.
Like her, often I am stirred from sleep
by thought, not dream.

A frenzied rap at the thin door a beckon
to follow her into the summer garden,
we listen to the birds—
nighthawk in the oak,
mockingbird in the underbrush.
We busy ourselves wondering what dark place
becomes the bed of the crow.

In these moments, we are suddenly aware
that our hearts are beating—there is
something larger than ourselves.

And knowing the fragility of it all,
we speak the language of mortality.

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