Red Riding Hood's Real Life: a novel in verse

Celebrated poet Ayers reveals the true-life story of Red Riding Hood recounting with tenderness--and a new erotic candor--both the anguish and hidden pleasures of straying from the well-worn path. Epic in scope but delivered with striking intimacy the poems move us from the innocence of girlhood through the pulchritude of adolescence the mendacities of marriage the transgression of infidelity to the complexities of adulthood. With whom will Red tango in the dark of the woods: the strapping Huntsman or the artful Wolf? The answer is transcendent. --Jeff Gomez CEO Starlight Runner EntertainmentNot since Edward Dorns Gunslinger have I found a poetic persona with this range depth insight and humor. Ayers collection reminds me of Leonard Cohens songs: while they are often narrative they never lost their essential connection with melody. These very human poems are built of angelic music and ask serious questions of the world. --James Bertolino author of Ravenous BlissSharp vivid poems allow a modern Red Riding Hood an artistic wolf and characters like Baba Yaga to spring to life. A meditation on the choices a woman makes in her life in her relationships and in her art this book maps the journey through the trials wonders and frustrations of a love affair. --Jeannine Hall Gailey author of Field Guide to the End of the WorldThe poem The First Story won 3rd place in the 2010 Rhysling Awards for Best Long Poetry.Ayers The First Story is likewise impressive but on an entirely visceral level through the evocation of womens lives and transformation using the darkest of fairy tale tropes. --Deborah J. Brannon Stone Telling