NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: Shards: A Mental Health Charity Anthology edited by Kara Hawkers and Emery Blake
NOTABLE WORKS
REVIEW: Shards: A Mental Health Charity Anthology edited by Kara Hawkers and Emery Blake, RavensQuoth Press 2024.
Reviewed by Stevie Morley
Trigger Warning: This review addresses mental health.
Edited by Kara Hawkers and Emery Blake with poetry by Dale Parnell, Marie C Lecrivain, Michele Mikel, Alison Bainbridge, Catherine A. Mackenzie, Rebecca Kolodziej, Lisa Reynolds, Shikhandin, Jose Ángel Conde, Jodi Jensen, Engelbert Egill Stefánsson, B.A. O’Connell, Nerisha Kemraj, Francis H. Powell, Courtney Glover, Maggie D. Brace, Christine Fowler, Henry Corrigan, Pauline Yates, Gabriella Balcom, Sharmon Gazaway, Dawn Debraal, Brianna Malotke, Renee Cronley, Max Bindi, Kay Hanifen, Norbert Góra, Gerald Jatzek, Avery Hunter, S. Jade Path, Kimberly Rei, Damaris West, Mark Andrew Heathcote, Broken Montague, Salam Adejoke, Lavern Spencer McCarthy, Sarfraz Ahmed, Linda Sparks, Carol Edwards, Adriana Rocha, Jessica Gleason, Karen Lynn Karekes, Denni Turp, Bernardo Villela, Lynn White, Linda M. Crate, Swayam Prashant, Fariel Shafee, Kaelin Govender, Greta T. Bates, Morgan Chalfant, Corinne Pollard, H.L. Dowless, Marc Sorondo, Kofi Oduro-Amaniampong, William “Bill” Waldorf, Walter Ruhlmann, Jacek Wilkos, and Dr. Nicki Nance.
Shards: A Mental Health Charity Anthology, compiled by Kara Hawkers and Emery Blake at Ravens Quoth Press, leads the reader through poetry of breathtaking candor. This anthology establishes a safe place for those who know these struggles firsthand. The beauty and grace of syntax and meter hold space for torment, despair, longing and loss, while functioning as a primer for writers of characters facing these challenges.
Each poet is introduced with a brief bio page focusing on their accomplishments, while their contributions lay bare their familiarity with the effects of mental health on daily life. Some speak with the voice of those who walk the tightrope between clarity and the abyss; others give voice to the pain of losing cherished community members in the relentless battle against depression. Emotions born of authentic experience are the currency of Shards.
The thread that binds these disparate poems is the honest sharing of lives lived in a world of stigma and shame to battle against the solitude imposed by society. The theme is love and strength, as when Dale Parnell said, “But I see her still, the warrior, the saviour…” There are words of survival through acceptance from Lisa Reynolds, “I no longer fight it / I let it do what it needs to…”
In a two-toned world of black and white, often dictated by those carrying a lighter load, Shards is a refreshing and poignant journey through every shade of gray. As a writer living with bipolar disorder, anxiety, and PTSD, I felt held and understood by these brave strangers who shared their fears, pains, losses, and hopes with the world. It can be exhausting to read my favorite genres only to see myself endlessly reflected as a villain, as an object of mistrust. Shards depicts the subjects as worthy of care and respect. While some of the poems are heartbreaking, that sorrow springs from a place of love.
The Horror Writers Association Mental Health Initiative aims to improve depictions
The Horror Writers Association Mental Health Initiative aims to improve depictions of mental health in the horror genre. This charter is focused on harm reduction by shining light on the realities of living with mental health disorders. By giving poets with firsthand knowledge a platform and a voice to express themselves, Shards is grounded in truth. The poets included in this anthology offer examples that can enrich characters conceived of for stories by members of the HWA. Here is a book that should be required reading for anyone attempting to write characters dealing with mental health struggles.
Beyond offering the reader direct benefits of reference material, the proceeds from sales of Shards benefit mental health charities. A list of mental health hotlines and resources is included in the back of the book.
Stevie Morley is a researcher with seven years of experience as a fossil preparator at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, CA. Their primary publications have been academic, which is fairly frightening. Stevie’s only published work of fiction appeared under the pen name Dale Fletcher in the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative anthology, Of Hope and Horror. They are currently hard at work on their debut novel but allow themself procrastination breaks to dabble in short stories and poetry. Eldritch horrors and Fates permitting, Stevie will achieve their master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences within the year.
