Foreshore to publish debut novel by poet Marie Anne Arreola

Foreshore is set to publish the debut novel by award winning poet Marie Anne Arreola after an exclusive submission. 

Phil M. Shirley, publisher-in-chief at Foreshore, acquired world rights to Sparks of the Liberating Spirit who Trapped Us back in Woodstock by Marie Anne, the debut novel from the highly acclaimed Mexican poet, following an exclusive submission from the author.

The new book is a magical realism novel debut novel that draws on the supernatural and is inspired by WILDSOUND’s Festival selection of Marie Anne’s winning poem Woodstock, a visually evocative tale that captures the haunting beauty of memory, and the delicate machinery of human connection—where sometimes, the only way to fix what’s broken is to embrace the imperfection of the present.

Jonathan, a 38-year-old man adrift in the unresolved corners of his life, returns to Woodstock for his grandfather’s funeral, where he receives a set of instructions from his ghost—an eerie and poetic task that leads him into an alternate version of his own timeline, facing the opportunity to rearrange the loose ends of his life.

Phil M. Shirley said: “I am an admirer of Marie Anne’s work, both her poetry and her short fiction, so when the chance to publish her debut novel came along, I leapt at it. Marie is a gifted storyteller whose bold and inventive writing  illuminates and expands our understanding of the physical and spiritual world in which we inhabit. I’m thrilled to be bringing her to Foreshore with “Woodstock.”

As the recipient of the 2024 Young Poets Scholarship from the Gutiérrez Lozano Foundation and a two-time finalist in the V and VI Francisco Ruiz Udiel Hispanic American Poetry Prize of Valparaíso Ediciones (Spain), Marie Anne’s poetry appears in books, anthologies and magazines from North American publishers, such as “BIPOC Issue”, “Walk of Life”, “CULTURE” , “December Poetry” , and in the digital catalogues of Mortal Magazine, F3LL Magazine, The Ground Up & For Women Who Roar Magazine .

Her poem A Movie Called Honeycomb was selected for publication in the Torrey House Press chapbook, In the Garden, part of the Environmental Humanities Program at the University of Utah. Marie has also received national recognition for her Spanish-language fiction, with publications in the Instituto Sonorense de la Cultura, Yuku Jeeka, Vislumbre, Neotraba, and Craquelarre magazines, and in the digital catalogs of Perlas del desierto and After Hours Magazine.

Her short story The Boots That Shake Spirits won first place for publication at the state level in the Budding Feathers 2022 literary contest .