Burning Oracle: Wesleyan University Press
In May 2025 I traveled to Svalbard, Norway where I was a member of The Arctic Circle expeditionary residency. The two-week voyage on the PSV Rembrandt van Rijn, a 56-meter schooner built in 1924, connected me with over two dozen extraordinary creatives from around the world. The residency provided a distinctive opportunity to conduct field research in the arctic circle; a region where sea ice and glaciers are disappearing at an alarming rate.
On the ship, we shared experiences, ideas, points of view, and our work. Following our journey, author Sandra Simonds contacted me expressing interest in my painting Adrenaline Dilation. After seeing the painting during an artist talk on the Rembrandt, Sandra felt the image would make the perfect cover for her newest project, Burning Oracle. When Sandra approached me about the cover, I was of course happy and honored to provide the painting’s image for the book, and I agree, it is a perfect fit.
Sandra is the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, Triptychs (Wave Books, November 2022). Her poetry, criticism, and creative nonfiction have been published in the New Yorker, The New York Times, Best American Poetry, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Chicago Review, Granta, Boston Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. Burning Oracle, published on Wesleyan University Press on February 17th, 2026, is included in the New York City Public Library 2026 list of Best New Poetry Books for Adults.
The publisher describes Burning Oracle as a “visionary, book-length poem told from the fractures of a world on fire where myth, memory, and contemporary life collide. Cassandra—seer, mother, survivor—wanders through forests of digital noise and historical trauma, her voice both ancient and urgently new. At the heart of the poem is a pilgrimage to the grave of poet Paul Celan where she traces personal loss within the wider context of inherited trauma—particularly the Holocaust—and seeks meaning in the act of remembering.” It’s a thoroughgoingly captivating narrative for which I’m thrilled to connect with through the books cover. Thank you Sandra.
NYC Public Library 2026 Best New Poetry Books for Adults
https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/poetry-2026/adults
Wesleyan University Press
https://www.weslpress.org/9780819502162/burning-oracle/