The Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.
A Field Guide to North American Trees
A Field Guide to North American Trees by Garrett Ashley Good Printed Things & Loblolly Press, 2025 Paper: $14.00 Genre: Poetry Reviewed by Jason Gordy Walker Alabama’s forests, and the many individual trees that constitute them—pine, oak, hickory, cottonwood, magnolia, birch, sycamore, and on and on—offer a colorful splendor stretching over 70 percent of the state. We ought to revere such a plethora of wooden beings, if not for their upright personalities than for their gift of sweet oxygen, a resource soon to be set up for subscription payments if the world’s feculent billionaires continue to trump our environment. Garrett Ashley’s debut poetry chapbook, A Field Guide to North American Trees, respects and celebrates trees in fourteen poems: “Balsam Poplar,” “Red Spruce,” “Jack Pine,” “Ginkgo,” “Live Oak,” “Loblolly Pine,” “Poison Sumac,” “American Holly,” “Sweetgum,” “Longleaf Pine,” “Slash Pine,” “Tree of Life,” “Crape Myrtle,” “Red Juniper (Eastern Red Cedar),” and “American Sycamore.” Each tree-poem has been arranged in pieces. For example, “Longleaf Pine” contains six subtitled entries of varying lengths (sestet, octet, two quatrains, quintet, and monostich): Description, [...]
