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Published by Central Avenue Poetry
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Sudden Seances conjures a world where memory hums like a spirit in the walls. It is a collection about loss, grief, and yearning—but at its core, it is about the haunting nature of the human experience. These poems call out beyond the veil, traversing the countless everyday rituals we use to summon the dead—whether through memories, objects, or the quiet ache of longing for something that’s long been lost.
Delving into all that’s said and unsaid between hello and goodbye, Sudden Seances explores the ways we continue to reach out long after a connection has closed. Awad’s poems linger in the spaces where the living and the remembered overlap, where ghosts—both literal and emotional—refuse to fade. Through ruminations on nostalgia, grief, and identity, this collection reflects on how the past never truly lets us go, and how we, too, are often unwilling to let what’s gone stay buried.
Excerpt
Going Bump in the Night: How to Scare Away the Ghosts
get an old standing radio and set it up in your living room / turn
the dial until you hear nothing but static and the interjection of
sporadic broken syllables / dance / climb up to the attic and walk
around at three in the morning / wear high heels / rearrange the
furniture / neglect the electric bill so the lights get turned off suddenly,
without warning / light a candle / carry it around when you get up to
go to the bathroom / shield the flame with your cupped hand / be the thing
around every dark corner / be the face in the mirror / be the echo of
footsteps / be the whistle in the distance / the whisper on the voice recorder /
the cold spot on the staircase / stand at the foot of your own bed / call out
“hello” / bellow “goodbye” / shout all the letters in between / turn on the
TV so it’s only transmitting snow / so it’s nothing but white noise / turn on
the kitchen faucet / open all the drawers and cabinets / learn morse code /
when you hear the disembodied knocks in the middle of the night / knock
back against the wall behind your bed /
get an old standing radio and set it up in your living room / turn
the dial until you hear nothing but static and the interjection of
sporadic broken syllables / dance / climb up to the attic and walk
around at three in the morning / wear high heels / rearrange the
furniture / neglect the electric bill so the lights get turned off suddenly,
without warning / light a candle / carry it around when you get up to
go to the bathroom / shield the flame with your cupped hand / be the thing
around every dark corner / be the face in the mirror / be the echo of
footsteps / be the whistle in the distance / the whisper on the voice recorder /
the cold spot on the staircase / stand at the foot of your own bed / call out
“hello” / bellow “goodbye” / shout all the letters in between / turn on the
TV so it’s only transmitting snow / so it’s nothing but white noise / turn on
the kitchen faucet / open all the drawers and cabinets / learn morse code /
when you hear the disembodied knocks in the middle of the night / knock
back against the wall behind your bed /
About The Author
Michelle Awad is a poet, occasional novelist, and dedicated observer of the everyday, convinced that poetry can be found anywhere—provided one looks closely enough. Her work often explores themes of nostalgia, memory, and the unseen, tracing the ghosts and emotional detritus that shape the human experience. She is the author of the debut collection Soul Trash, Space Garbage and the chapbook Poems for the Apocalypse. Awad resides in New Orleans, where she can often be found enjoying a gin and tonic on an ironwork balcony or seeking insight from readers in Jackson Square.
Product Details
- Publisher: Central Avenue Poetry (November 19, 2026)
- Length: 144 pages
- ISBN13: 9781771684767
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