Ashlee Craft's World

Tag: books

  • It is Not Easy, But I am Finding It

    From the book —

    the warmest home

    home is when I am with you;
    home is other places too –
    home will always be the field
    & the fairgrounds & the fairytale,
    & it will always be the castles & the caves &
    the world that tingles so tangibly at the precipice of my imagination
    the one I attempt to make real by the fervor
    by which I believe in it

    you are not the only home I have,
    but you are the warmest one

    “It is Not Easy, But I am Finding It” is a collection of 36 poems by Ashlee Craft.

    Publication Date: April 7, 2020
    Paperback: 40 pages
    Genre: Poetry

    Amazon

  • Issue 1 (Pictorial Radio Show: The Zine)

    Pictorial Radio Show: The Zine is a more lowkey zine I’ve started making just to kind of show some recent things I’ve created, talk about how I’m feeling, etc! This is the first-ever issue!

    Publication Date: March 17, 2020
    Genre: Zines

    Amazon

  • Move on Up – NEW POETRY BOOK

    MOVE ON UP is a collection of 61 poems by Ashlee Craft.

    twenty-five

    I must figure out how to reconcile what is & what was,
    what was never meant to be & the relief that was always fated to
    become the cure, & turn the teardrops into
    pieces of glitter, & each glinting blade
    into gold, & figure out what to do now
    that I have done what was maybe impossible
    in the eyes of myself ten years ago

    but I am here;
    I am fucking here,
    & I must figure out who to be
    now that I have broken through the brick wall
    & seen there is light on the other side too

    Publication Date: October 3, 2019
    Genre: Poetry

    Amazon

  • Beneath the Soil, Beneath Concrete – NEW POETRY BOOK

    Beneath the Soil, Beneath Concrete is a collection of 48 poems by Ashlee Craft.

    lions on a gray beach

    with my shield of hard rock I went out to try & face the gray
    but even it was washed away like waves kissing the sand with death
    leaving me stranded & naked on the cold gray shore
    alone, alone, alone,
    dangerously alone,

    yet: I had never been as close to being washed, numb & fading,
    into the ocean as I had always feared I had been

    was I near the edge? Yes.
    but there was always an invisible barrier, somewhere in front of me
    lovingly presiding over my fears
    & never allowing them to cut me as deeply as they seemed capable of?
    …

    Yes.

    I still enclosed tinder deep inside me
    meant to turn my meager slivers of happiness
    into lions

    Publication Date: July 25, 2019
    Genre: Poetry

    Amazon

  • AM Music: A Blackout Reduction of James Joyce’s Chamber Music Poetry Book

    Inspired by writer & creative Austin Kleon’s “Newspaper Blackout” poetry book, I decided to take James Joyce’s Chamber Music, a book he originally published in 1907, & make a blackout “reduction” version of it.

    I simply adore the poems in this book, & it was quite fun to go through the book & black out sections of the poems to find (& therefore, create) new poems inside them. I liken this creative process to, in a somewhat orderly fashion, shuffling cut-out words from a specific book inside a hat & seeing what poems you find in them. I have approached all the poems from the standpoint of creating art from them.

    Admittedly, it was difficult at times to decide what should stay & what should go, as there are so many good bits in these poems.Note: As this book was created digitally & without taking a Sharpie to paper & being locked into the inherent spacing in the text, I have also added punctuation where desired so the created poems read properly.

    In some places, I have left entire lines intact if I particularly liked it (the collaborative effort, metaphorically reaching back into time, with Joyce being stronger here). With other poems, I have redacted all but a few words, making these poems mostly-mine. Either way, a thousand people could go through this book & all find different poems that meant something to them.

    These are my creative & derivative contributions to a new, semi-collaborative work of art. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

    Publication Date: July 24, 2019
    Genre: Poetry

    AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

  • TENDERNESS ON MAIN – NEW POETRY BOOK

    Tenderness on Main is a collection of 43 poems about deep, tender love in all its forms: love between two people, love between the Universe & a person, & love between a person & themselves.

    out of the gloom, first //

    it was all very tender, the way you
    took such great care to unearth the most colorful flower you could find
    from the bottom of the pile at the garbage dump &
    hold it out to me saying,
    “treasures are found everywhere” & I said
    “I know, I always find them too” & you
    smiled at me & I knew what you meant &
    it wasn’t in a garbage dump that we found each other but
    neither of us were on top of the world either but
    inch by inch we pulled ourselves from the bottom of the pile &
    declared that we were worthy & ready &
    I reached out my hand to you & you wrapped your fingers in mine &
    we carried the flower out of the dump between us &
    it always lasted in full-bloom

    Publication Date: August 1, 2019
    Genre: Poetry

    AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

     

  • Strawberry Moon – NEW EXPERIMENTAL NOVEL

    Strawberry Moon is an avant-garde, experimental novel followup to Ashlee Craft’s previous book, “Feel the Hidden Flowers”, complete with letters Nina wrote, song lyrics, & other literary pieces as she goes through a box of her old things & observes how much she has changed since she has recovered from her depression.

    Publication Date: July 27, 2019
    Genre: Fiction – Experimental Novel

    AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

  • NEW COMEDY NON-FICTION BOOK: YEET!: 51 Absurdist Comedy Examples of the Internet’s Favorite Word

    51 absurdist comedy examples utilizing the slang word “Yeet”.

    PUBLICATION DATE: May 26, 2019
    PAPERBACK: 58 Pages
    GENRE: Non-Fiction/Comedy

    Available on Amazon

  • NEW PHOTOGRAPHY & POETRY BOOK: Flowers, Three

    Flowers, Three is a collection of 28 flower & nature photographs taken at Mercer Botanical Gardens in Humble, TX & four poems by Ashlee Craft.

    PUBLICATION DATE: January 12, 2019
    PAPERBACK: 36 Pages
    GENRE: Photography, Poetry
    SERIES: Flowers (Zines)

    Available on Amazon

  • NEW PHOTOGRAPHY & POETRY BOOK: Flowers, Two

    Flowers, Two is a collection of four poems & 30 photographs of nature & flowers, taken at Mercer Botanic Gardens in Humble, Texas.

    PUBLICATION DATE: November 28, 2018
    PAPERBACK: 37 Pages
    GENRE: Photography, Poetry
    SERIES: Flowers (Zines)

    Available on Amazon