From award-winning poet Rachel Toalson comes a brand-new collection of poetry inspired by the parenthetical years of life, perfect for fans of Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds, and Billy Collins.

Textbook of a Parenthetical Life is a poignant collection that tells the story of years spent feeling invisible-in careers, in families, in lives. With her characteristic candor and curiosity, Rachel reflects on the power of nature and the mundaneness of motherhood; challenges societal thought around feminism and women’s issues; and delves into past and present to examine falling in love, how history affects our lives, coming to terms with death, rising above our mistakes, and becoming who we are.

Divided into nine sections that resemble a college undergraduate course load (English Literature, Biology, Health Science, Family and Child Development, Mathematics, Women’s Studies, History, General Studies, and Philosophy), Rachel boldly opens her heart to her reader, sharing her imaginative assumptions, her shortcomings, her mistakes, her brave wonderings, her storied past. Examining themes of love, mental illness, body image, family life, feminism, identity, and so much more, Textbook of a Parenthetical Life is a witty, intimate, sometimes lighthearted, sometimes deeply contemplative testament to the joy and pain of life lived in parentheses-some of the most important years of our lives.

Earnest, eloquent, and evocative, Textbook of a Parenthetical Life is Rachel’s seventh book of poetry.