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Hush Candy (Revised Edition)

What will Kentucky Book Festival visitors find on your table?
On the table, they will find copies of Hush Candy, a collection of poems “full of fun, sass, and splendid rebellion” (as Kathleen Driskell said). Behind the table, they will find me, who may also be full of fun, sass, and splendid rebellion.

Whom do you invite to stop by? Who will benefit from reading your book?
I hope everyone will stop by, even those who think they don’t like poetry. (I always contend they just haven’t found the right poem/poet.) In terms of those whom I think will benefit most from reading my book, I’d say those who have had their hearts broken and those who have done the heartbreaking, those who have chafed against the rules of “civilized” society (even as they’ve followed them), and those who enjoy their books a little on the saucy side.

Could you please tell us something curious about you and/or your book?
Many of Hush Candy’s poems begin with an epigraph from a late-19th/early-20th century domestic manuals that instruct women on how to be good wives. The epigraphs’ corresponding poems respond from a more modern and feminist (and, I would argue, more realistic) perspective.

Is this your first time participating in Kentucky Book Festival? If yes – what are you looking forward to the most? If you’ve participated before – what was your favorite experience at the Festival?
This is my second time participating in the Kentucky Book Festival. At my first festival, my favorite experience was connecting with fellow readers and writers – people who cherish words as much as I do! (I also loved getting to stock up on new books to read and gift!)

About the Author

Poet Missy Brownson resides in Georgetown, KY, and works in Frankfort as the associate director for communications and outreach for an educational agency. In Hush Candy, her accomplished and sure debut collection, she revisits the venerable genre of domestic advice manuals, those 19th and 20th century compendia of wisdom designed to guide women (especially aspiring women of the rising middle class) in the exercise of their proper roles in the home and society. 

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