The following description was submitted by the event organizer.

Donna Spruijt-Metz visits the store from California to celebrate the release of her first full-length poetry collection General Release from the Beginning of the World. She’ll be joined by local poet Suzanne Edison, last seen at the store in the fall of 2022 to celebrate her own poetry collection Since the House is Burning.

In General Release from the Beginning of the World, Donna Spruijt-Metz attempts to reconcile the death of the father, the lies of the mother, a hidden half-sister, and the love for a daughter-with the impossible desire to banish the past from the present. She examines shifting relationships with the holy, referred to in the book only as 'YOU.' She asks: "Do YOU hear/a whisper/in YOUR//constant night/-and then listen?" She breaks her own heart to touch yours.