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.
The Tears of Things
The Tears of Things By Catherine Hamrick Madville Publishing, 2025 Paperback: $19.95 Genre: Poetry Reviewed by Jennifer Horne Catherine Hamrick draws her book’s title from classical literature: a phrase in Homer’s Aeneid that, translated by Seamus Heaney, reads, “there are tears at the heart of things.” A more recent version of that sentiment occurs in the television show The Good Place, when the character Eleanor Shellstrop tells an immortal being horrified by the idea of death, “All humans are aware of death. So...we're all a little bit sad, all the time. That's just the deal.” Until someone figures out how to live forever (and please don’t let it be as a disembodied head, or as the result of extreme fasting), we humans will be trying to find joy, meaning, and connection in our relatively brief time on earth. One of our best ways to do that is through poetry. The Tears of Things is a first book that reads like the work of an accomplished, established poet. Artfully crafted poems address aging, mortality, and rebirth; grief, depression, [...]
