One Good Thing is a New Book

Now available for pre-order!

Image of book cover. A chalk rainbow on a sidewalk and the words One Good Thing and Claire Taylor written in rainbow chalk.

My new poetry chapbook, One Good Thing, is being published by Bottlecap Press and is now available for preorders. You can order your copy here. 

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At some point during the first year of the pandemic, I started to feel like I was losing my mind. My business had been closed for months, I was spending all day every day taking care of my then-three-year-old, and I had developed a variety of debilitating, mysterious pains that were difficult to have assessed and treated on account of how limited healthcare access was at the time. It was too much, and I was worried that I would start spiraling.

One day I went out for a walk and made an effort to take note of the good things I saw around me. I needed a reminder that while the world felt chaotic and scary, most of what existed in my immediate vicinity was normal, the kind of stuff I saw or experienced every day. Within this period of time when things felt very much not okay in the world, most of the small, ordinary details of my life were the same as they had always been. I tried to focus on those details and that practice eventually led to this collection of poems.

This book is home to some of my absolute favorite pieces I have ever written. I love its blend of pathos and optimism, and the way it attempts to make sense of life through a style of writing that mimics the way the mind wanders. I think that you will love it too, I hope that you will purchase a copy.

If you live in Baltimore and would like to save on shipping, just reply to this email or leave a comment to let me know. I will have copies available and we can figure out the details for a local pickup.

One of the poems in One Good Thing was previously published by Corporeal Lit. You can read it here.

And here is a description of the book:

One good thing is turning your anti-anxiety practice into a poetry collection.

With this series of thirteen prose poems, all but one of which share the same title and opening line, One Good Thing invites readers to witness the unspooling of Claire Taylor’s mind. Born from a pandemic practice in which the author managed her anxiety by taking long walks through her neighborhood and focusing her attention on one good thing she could see, remember, or imagine, One Good Thing is a carefully crafted stream of consciousness.

A blend of memory and dream, this collection embraces the reality that happiness must coexist with suffering. A pandemic reflection that is not about the pandemic, One Good Thing encourages the reader to let it all in: joy and heartache, grief and pleasure, a life that cannot be distilled into a solitary experience.

Thank you as always for reading and for your support!

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