Instructions for Traveling West

Reviews

“This empathetic, honest, and intimate collection is chockful of poems reminding the reader to love earnestly, live freely, and pay attention.”—Kate Baer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of And Yet and What Kind of Woman

“Here, we see a woman feeding herself—light, bread, joy. This book is going to be a beloved companion by so many readers.”—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“What a thrilling voice! Joy Sullivan’s poetry is vast and yet familiar—and more remarkably, full of images and recollections that might have been mine, or yours. Her poems offer respite for both weary travelers and those of us who still feel fresh and bright-eyed, making this book a wonderful comfort.”—Elise Loehnen New York Times bestselling author of On Our Best Behavior

“Instructions for Traveling West is remarkable for how it captures this moment, the essence of this weird middle time—and for how thrilling it is to read someone who is noticing, who is saying despite every terrible thing, ‘This place is great, I want to be here, what a thing to be alive.’ Joy Sullivan will make you want to live the way that Mary Oliver makes you want to live. You read this to remember.”—Holly Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of Quit Like a Woman

“A blistering, tender reflection on desire and delight that will soak right into your skin.”—Lyndsay Rush, Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin on Instagram

“In this sunny debut collection, Sullivan traces a lifelong journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance with deceptive depth. [Her] unpretentious and blunt recounting of her experiences is a breath of fresh air.”—Publishers Weekly

“Sullivan’s poems are direct and sensuous, each lyric a vibrant vignette, a story with a lesson, a sensuous homily defining holiness as lushly earthy. These are . . . moving, forthright, and fresh poems about loneliness and desire, beauty and pain. Sullivan’s collection is a welcoming and rewarding volume, especially for readers tentative about poetry.”—Booklist Expand reviews