About
what I wonder is at the deep end of an unraveling universe
do the planets rock rubble and dust go quietly
simply surrendering themselves to the inevitable
do they make a tacit agreement with the coming void
offering up gentle pieces at first that which does not hurt
the inconsequential?
any shame you do not mind parting ways with?
I cede nothing
make no compromise in this attempted high-jacking of myself
instead ruminate on the lesson given me by my mother
when awakened from girlhood nightmares frightened by the shadows
lining the walls cast by the deliberate moonlight
these fantoms she said are soon vanquished
with the coming light they have no choice
and this is… I guess what it means to face instead a burning sun
understanding the consequences of pushing back
refusing to fade giving the end
of your everything absolutely…
…no choice
in the changing…of your mind
—excerpted f/ "transmogrify," from bone
Monique Ferrell is an award-winning writer. She is the author of several poetry collections: Attraversiamo (2016), Unsteady (2011), and Black Body Parts (2002) and the forthcoming collection from NYQ Books, titled bone.
Ferrell is the recipient of the Hedgebrook Artist in Residence Fellowship and is a three-time finalist (2023, 2021, 2020) for the Joy Harjo Poetry Award (sponsored by Cutthroat: A Journal of The Arts). Her other writing accolades/honorifics include: the Winning Writers Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Honorable Mention Poetry Prize (2019); the 2017 Honor Book Prize for Poetry, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA); and The Julie Suk Prize For Poetry (2016). Among its other honors, her collection Attraversiamo was also a 2016 and, later, 2020 Small Press Distributors (SPD) Staff Pick; additionally, select poems from the collection were also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Recently, poems from bone (her forthcoming collection) have been made finalist/semi-finalist in contests sponsored by New Millennium Writings, Tulip Tree Publishing, Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, and Bellingham Literary Review.
In June of 2023, Ferrell’s work was featured in the documentary film short: Reading the Body: Poetry & Dance on Recovery, sponsored by The Paige Fraser Foundation (TPFF) and Bellevue Literary Review (BLR). Reading The Body: Poetry & Dance uses the work of noted poets and celebrated African American and diasporic dancers to explore the connections between dance, the spoken word, and what it means to heal from trauma. Reading the Body: Poetry & Dance On Recovery has received honors from The New Arts International Film Festival (London), FilmFest by Rogue Dancer (America), Vienna International Film Awards (Austria), New York Short Film Festival, TheaterLive Online Film Festival (America), Festival Fotogenia (Mexico), International Fine Arts Film Festival (Hollywood), Mignolo International Screendance Festival (America), and the Kiez Berlin Film Festival (Germany), among other noteworthy international film institutions.
A poet and fiction writer, Ferrell’s writing has been featured on The Slowdown podcast, hosted by United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. She has also published in noted creative writing journals and magazines, including American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, Reed Magazine, Talking River Review, Oroboro Literary Review, WinningWriters.com, North American Review, African Voices, and Bellevue Literary Review, among others. Ferrell is a widely anthologized writer, with her work being featured in several noted anthologies, including Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Soul; Through The Ash, New Leaves; Token Entry: New York City Subway Poems; Out of The Rough: Women’s Poems of Survival; Rabbit Ears: Poems About Television; and will soon be published in forthcoming anthologies from NYQ Books (Without Doubt: poems illustrating faith) and New Millennium Writings.
Ferrell routinely presents her work at bookstores, college campuses/universities, and noted reading series, including the “1619” event sponsored by Carnegie Hall: “400 Years of Inequality: Contributions from The Diaspora.”
Ferrell is the co-founder of the creative writing literary journal, 2 Bridges Review (2011-2022), which published the work of noted poets and fiction writers from around the United States. In 2021, she joined the team of reviewers at the award-winning Bellevue Literary Review, where she has written about such writers as Khadijah Queen and Elissa Washuta. In 2023, Ferrell served as the journal’s interim Poetry Editor.
Beyond her creative writing pursuits, Ferrell is the author of myriad scholarly publications on popular culture issues, such as “Feeling Some Type of Way: Whatever Happened To Murphy Brown?”; “Just Another Bitch on Reality Television: The Intentional Degradation of the American Woman”; and “I Do, Too: Jessie Tyler Ferguson and the Fight For Marriage Equality.” Her co-authored/coedited scholarly books—explorations focusing on the writing process, race, gender equality, social change, and global identity—include a variety of texts: Lead, Follow, or Move Out of The Way: Global Perspectives in Literature & Film; Good Writing Made Simple; and the gender anthology Looking for the Enemy: The Eternal Internal Gender Wars of Our Sisters.
Beyond bone, Ferrell is currently conducting research for her for next poetry/creative non-fiction project, bloodroot, which seeks to trace her family back to the first African woman brought to America in bondage.
Books Available for Purchase:
Critics are saying
“Each line weaves time and space as it rushes forward and crosses over barriers, and assumptions, and certainties.”