the people were lovely, but I was not
the people were lovely, but I was not, is the winner of the 2024/25 BOOM chapbook contest.
This chronic, queer missive is pieced together with the beautiful detritus that so many would toss away in the midst of their creative processes. Instead, Stella has resurrected them and sewed them together to create a spellbinding chapbook.
Dan Mahhoney, Bateau editor in chief, has this to say: the people were lovely, but I was not is crazy funny & crazy warm at the same time. The speaker in these poems has this wonderful ability to yo-yo the reader into interior distances where the joke is on us, on them...is never really a joke. This is a great ride, so full of heart and amazing writing. This book is flat out fantastic!
Check out the sewing process ->
About Stella
Stella Corso is the author of the poetry collections Green Knife (Rescue Press, 2023) and Tantrum (Rescue Press, 2017), selected by Douglas Kearney for the Black Box Prize, plus the chapbooks Taboo Vivant (Blush Lit, 2022) and Wind & the Augur (Sixth Finch, 2021). She is a founding member of the Connecticut River Valley Poets’ Theater (CRVPT) and co-host of The Ritter, a podcast for literary analysis and cultural commentary. She holds a PhD in English & Literary Arts, and currently teaches at the University of Denver and in the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University.
