You Can Tell the Horse Anything is a debut collection of prose poems that explores the many manifestations of longing-true love, spiritual redemption, a good night’s sleep, the list is long and varied. Using humor and lyricism, they give voice to an array of animals as well as human characters who inhabit the sometimes rocky terrain between the common place and the absurd. Ultimately, these poems — these tightly packed mini-dramas — are microcosms of our own everyday lives. They challenge our sense of self, our sense of belonging and comfort. They ask us to tread carefully in a world that is easily turned on its side. Yet, ironically, they also encourage us to be hopeful, to realize that solace and small joy can be found talking to a horse or raising worms on a moonlit mountain.

Mary A. Koncel was born in Chicago, where she received a B.F.A. at Columbia College. She then earned an M.F.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an M.S. in Animals and Public Policy from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. An avid dressage rider, she also teaches in the Jacobsen Center for Writing at Smith College. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and many animals, small and large.

Awards

Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship
Pushcart Prize Nominee