Latest News:

Announcing the release of

FLYING: Trapeze Poems

From the terrific artisanal publisher, Red Bird Chapbooks, in Minneapolis . . .

“Lillo Way inhabits the voice of her grandmother, after whom she was named, in these deeply felt, deeply researched poems that capture the spirited world of circus performers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Tracing the trajectory of a young girl as she learns to “fly” alongside her brothers in Britain, reaches the heights of fame as a young woman in Europe, and matures into motherhood and old age in America, Flying is a tribute to the thrill of performance and the power of family.”

A gorgeous book, handsewn in red thread, with red endpapers, that would make a lovely gift . . . at only $15.

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Lend Me Your Wings

“Rich in music and in imagination, Lillo Way’s Lend Me Your Wings is a celebration and a joy.”

The poems in this award-winning collection take the reader on a ride with things that fly, including the poet’s grandmother (who was an aerialist with Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth), birds, ghosts, insects, ancestors, an angel or two…as well as humans attempting to flee. Arresting images by artist Rachel Brumer interlace the poems in this extraordinary collection, enhancing their sense of wonder and surprise.

The manuscript was a finalist for The Blue Lynx Poetry Prize, The May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, The Sally Albiso Poetry Book Award, The Barry Spacks Poetry Prize, and The Brighthorse Prize. One of the poems, “Offering,” won the 2018 E.E. Cummings Award from New England Poetry Club, and another, “Appropriation,” was awarded a Florida Review 2018 Editors’ Prize.

In her endorsement of the book, the great poet, Ellen Bass, writes:

“Rich in music and in imagination, Lillo Way’s Lend Me Your Wings is a celebration and a joy. She begins with poems that capture the thrill of her grandmother’s aerial feats in the Barnum and Bailey circus ‘It’s about the letting go—his eyes, / your arms, the trapeze, its song.’ And then moves on to a world full of wonder in unexpected places. But she does not ignore the grit of life, nor does she look away from the truly terrible. In ‘Offering,’ which is dedicated to David S. Buckel, the Environmentalist and LAMBDA lawyer who self-immolated in 2018, she writes ‘Unbuckle him, unburn him, un- / fuel his futile flames, unfossil / the fumes, re-gold them. Fold / him in our unarmed arms.’ In ‘Broken,’ she writes ‘I hear birds, clear as glass, in sounds we call song / or we call language, and which the birds call / nothing. ’That’s close to a description of these poems. That ‘nothing’ that holds everything.”

—Ellen Bass, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets; author of Indigo, Copper Canyon Press.


Lillo Way

EVENTS:

MARCH 30, 2025: (Live) Fruitlands in Harvard, Massachusetts, 2pm (sponsored by New England Poetry Club).

APRIL 7, 2025: (Live) Cafe Muse Literary Salon. The Writer's Center, Chevy Chase, Maryland, 7pm (4508 Walsh St., Chevy Chase, MD 20815)

November 17, 2022: (Live) SoulFood Coffeehouse, 6:00pm (15748 Redmond Way, Redmond WA): Featuring Lillo Way and Heidi Seaborn reading from their latest books, as well as new work.

September 21, 2022: (Live) Hugo House, 7 - 8:30pm (1634 11th Avenue, Seattle): Book launch of the anthology, When Home is Not Safe edited by Judith Skillman and Linera Lucas. Featuring Lillo Way, Carolyne Wright, Susan Landgraf, and Heidi Seaborn. https://hugohouse.org/event/when-home-is-not-safe_2022-09-21-2/

May 19, 2022: Studium Generale|Dancing the Words: A Conversation and Reading with Mary Moore Easter and Lillo Way at 12:30pm. Event Location: Peninsula College’s Little Theater / Online via Zoom at https://pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/88082575506, Meeting ID: 880 8257 5506. pencol.edu

May 17, 2022: Dancing the Words: A Conversation and Reading with Mary Moore Easter and Lillo Way at 12:00pm-1:30pm. At Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum, 93 Pike St #307, Seattle WA. $12 Folio Members, $15 Non-members. The event includes lunch. Folioseattle.org

February 26, 2022: at 5pm EST, 2pm PST: Lit Balm featuring Lillo Way, Carolyne Wright, Susana H. Case and Maria Gillan see litbalm.com

August 1, 2021: American Poetry Museum in Washington D.C. Sunday Series, 3 — 4:30 EST, hosted by Lisa Pegram with poet, Mary Moore Easter

August 8, 2021: Cultivating Voices Live 12 pm PST, hosted by Sandy Yannone

August 18, 2021: Café Muse, Poets Versus the Pandemic Series, 7 pm EST, hosted by Henry Crawford of The Word Works, with Christine Hamm and Indran Amirthanayagam

September 12, 2021: New England Poetry Club, New Book Festival, 1- 4 pm EST

October 27, 2021: Hudson Valley Writers Center, 7 pm EST, hosted by Jennifer Franklin

Noted: The Uruguayan-American composer, Sergio Cervetti, chose three poems from Lend Me Your Wings to set to music. The songs are scored for soprano and string quartet. www.sergiocervetti.com