Susan Isla Tepper presented her darkly comic play CLANDESTINE in an Equity Premiere Staged-reading, hosted by SHOPTALK, on June 10 at EAG Guild Hall Theatre, NYC. Her latest Novel “Hair of a Fallen Angel” was published by Spuyten Duyvil Books. A twenty-year writer, she’s written 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 stage plays. Honors include 21 Pushcart Prize Nominations. Her play ‘The Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. A Youtube music video for her latest novel at: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY

CLIMB

By Susan Isla Tepper

At the bottom
I knew I could never
make that climb
regardless of what
lies ahead—

Wallowing in
the putrid air
staring at
those beckoning stairs

Frozen, I
couldn’t grab the handrail—
A firing squad might

Right here or crashing down
from above.
Both are equally plausible.

Phoebe Wilcox’s first novel, Angels Carry the Sun, (Lilly Press, 2010) was nominated for the PEN/Faulker award. Her poetry chapbook, Recidivist, (Lilly Press, 2010) includes the Rhysling-nominated poem, “A More Significant Sun.” Three Pushcart prize nominations and one Gertrude Stein “Rose” Poetry Prize later (Wilderness House Literary Review, 2012), she is hard at work on her second novel, Don’t Get Burned. She lives in a swing state on the East Coast.