By Stone and Needle

<p><b>Winner of the 2025 L. E. Phillabaum Poetry Award</b> <p/>Shimmering to the pulse of the unseen <i>By Stone and Needle </i>circles like a compass needle around the figure of the witch. Catherine Carter concocts a book of secular spells and incantations for engaging with and meditating upon a world in which all things are connected in which symbol slides into literal spirituality into science exact observation into lamentation and love. <p/>The poems in <i>By Stone and Needle </i>spin connecting threads between night sweats witch drownings creation stories pedicures goddesses--and especially between miraculously interconnected ecosystems and the forces that threaten them. Speakers encompass personae including lactobacilli bacteria bodily yeasts and the classical witch Medea while elsewhere a contemporary version of the goddess Artemis appears in Appalachia. Carter's poetic vision imbues everyday moments such as putting on a coat piercing an ear confronting racism and patriarchy or eating onion slices with a new definition of magic as the human thing.</p>