What people are saying...
"If we could take some syllables out of Love Letters from Cuckold Creek to inject into the algorithms now making A I, we would make its future language crystalline and kind. It would provide the necessary gene now missing from robotics—a feminine intelligence, with a mother’s nurturing love; and the tenacity of a performer: ( “…I now sing for myself…”) Kristin Kowalski Ferragut is also a musician, you can tell by her cadence, the lifted phrase, the lilt, and the esthetics using word and space skillfully placed. Just hear lines like: “I don’t want a day to dawn/ without you, so I stay/ awake.” This book is way overdue. I would have always wanted it."
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- Grace Cavalieri
Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate
"The world needs a place like Cuckold Creek where one can immerse in Kristin Kowalski Ferragut’s poetry, keep it in our mind’s eye and remember it as we catch sight of a cloud “Take the sky from me for a moment, unwrap my arms from the clouds/As We Rely on Each Other” and smile thinking of her venture into the wetlands under the watch of her grown child “…in brackish water I scoop with palms, to sprinkle on the limbs and chest, a kind of baptism/Alive on Cuckold Creek II” and recall the odes she wrote to her children. Loss, love, mourning, and nature are themes Kristin addresses and forges into one’s mind. The world needs a copy of Cuckold Creek in their back pockets to give one “Sanctuary” with and through Kristin’s poetic language “Even after rainy nights, I awake to starlight/Stars Bend Light, Erase Habit of Devotion.”
- kelly catharine bradley, author of a gift and love, loss and the enormity of it all
"Reading Kristin Kowalski Ferragut’s latest collection, Love Letters from Cuckold Creek, is like savoring a long, unrushed conversation with a friend. Each poem is intimate and personal, and yet, they are universal in their explorations of our emotional lives and loves. A biosphere of bruises and beauty. The richness of her language and freshness of her metaphors draw us even further into her world. From the “shimmer of hummingbirds” to a “stained-glass heart,” she explores what it is to be human. At the heart of her work, we come to realize that her world is truly ours, too."
- Le Hinton, author of Elegies for an Empire, Sing Silence, and The God of Our Dreams
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"As readers take this journey through these love letters, they will realize that these poems are not so much about love as they are about deep appreciation for the people we become over time and through the experiences we have (both painful and loving). These experiences allow artifice to crumble away and enable us to “Forget to recall whowe aim / to be; that we make history / with every smile, the phantom / of our best self.”
- Serena Agusto-Cox, author of forthcoming Echoes Carry
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Becoming the Enchantress is the story of a transgender parent that faces personal longing for change. Given the acceptance and encouragement of her children, the parent magically transforms from a Wizard into an Enchantress on Halloween night. The story highlights themes of acceptance and the love between child and parent. Becoming the Enchantress is unique in that it is written for children whose parent is the
one discovering their dysphoria and seeking reassignment, rather than that of the child or teenager themselves.
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What people are saying...
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“I challenge you to/ Unzip your skin and see/if you make it to the West Coast./Exactly.” In Escape Velocity, Kristin Kowalski Ferragut invites us to experience the moments that make a life with finely honed wording and well-crafted stanzas that awaken every sense, often in unexpected ways. With deep compassion, she delves into relationships with family, loves and loves lost, the joys and sorrows that come with the bits and pieces that make a life and give us our sense of where we are in the world, sprinkled with delectable moments of wry humor. This exquisite debut poetry collection takes us beyond our usual understanding of self and place in a “rare conversation that matters.”
• Lucinda Marshall
Founder and Host, DiVerse Gaithersburg Poetry Reading
Author of Inheritance Of Aging Self
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Kristin Kowalski Ferragut sends us “Whirling/in our individual little confoundations,” as she reconciles the collective discord we face. She shoulders such universal themes as grief, love and grace in a uniquely flawless dance. In “Unbearable Lightness” she muses, “We anchor ourselves in burdens, lost causes…to keep from floating away.” In lines like this, Ferragut startles us from our safe repose to experience the jeopardy and promise of motion; to believe in second chances and in our ability to “put the blood back/in the stone.”
• Alison Palmer, author of The Need for Hiding
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A courageous testament, lush with startling imagery, Kristin Kowalski Ferragut’s Escape Velocity focuses on the personal in order to illuminate the universal. “Truth leaves words in shambles,” Ferragut cautions us, nevertheless, “All the days in this long life / fill with
such wonder of / words ....” With each poem standing on its own as a singular story, taken as a whole, this premier collection takes the reader on an Odyssey, unsettling at times, tender at others, through memory and loss, forward with strength and resilience to
confront “This love of what grows wild flowers ... erratic, uncertain, hard to stare down.” The laws of physics cannot constrain this poet’s quest; the reader will be rewarded for accompanying her on the journey.
• W. Luther Jett, author of Everyone Disappears, Our Situation, and Not Quite
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Review on Savvy Verse & Wit​
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What people are saying...
Becoming the Enchantress fills a heretofore neglected niche in children’s literature. It conveys the struggle of a parent to find, in this case, her true identity, and the children’s loving acceptance of it. It should prove a useful resource for families with a transgender or non-binary parent.
—W. Luther Jett, retired Special Educator, Montgomery County Public Schools, author of Our Situation and Everyone Disappears
Becoming the Enchantress is a beautiful story about a life changing transition. It uses imagery that children can understand to discuss a difficult topic. The book details the emotions of someone who is learning how to be their true self. The story shows that while children may not fully understand the issue, They are accepting and are willing to love others for who they are.
—Stacy Whipp, M.Ed.
A wonderful story for all ages of unconditional love and acceptance for people! Be true to who you are and love yourself and you will feel completely fulfilled. This story teaches us that no matter what, a person’s heart and soul is what defines them.
—Katherine R Stull, LCSW-C
Becoming the Enchantress is a wonderful tale for anyone who has questioned their identity or has loved someone doing so. It treats the delicate subject in the most loving way possible, with gorgeous illustrations, spotlighting the magic that positive self-image and family acceptance can create.
— Michelle Zibrat, Art Educator
I am both the parent of a trans child and a therapist that supports transitioning children, teens and adults. I Iove Becoming the Enchantress as it is a lovely story that explains the need to transition from your sex assigned at birth to your true self. Children will connect both with the Wizard and his family in this story. Using the experience of "trying on" a different persona is a lovely way to introduce the children to the wizard and the concept of transitions.
—Theresa Fraser , CYC-P, CPT-S, NSCCT, MA, RP, Trauma and Loss Clinical Specialist
This lovely book featuring animal characters meets children at their level of magical wonderment, where developmentally all things are possible without judgment. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for families with young children who want to keep an open mind to non-binary choices, without delving into deep discussions and extensive explanations.
—Laurie Zelinger, PhD, ABPP, RPT-S, Board Certified Psychologist and author of Please Explain
Anxiety to Me
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There are many stories out there that share messages of encouragement. Often we find children’s books where the parent is teaching the message of being authentic to oneself. This story flips the roles and the multiple messages that are conveyed by writing this way are to be celebrated.
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In Becoming the Enchantress the children are the ones that encourage their parent to be their authentic self. I love the son and daughter’s words to their parent that encourages them to love and celebrate themself in the way that feels best to them. This story has a universal message of acceptance that is not given to but given by children.
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—Lorrie Bennett, M.Ed., Elementary Special Education Teacher
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Video Interview of Kristin & Coley by Laura Di Franco of Brave Healer Productions
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Anthologies
