Paddling the Sweet Spot
Between Life and Death
from Finishing Line Press
Release date April 10, 2026.
"It took a cancer crisis to develop internal infrared vision and see life in the dark. Life doesn't begin after certain things happen. Life won't start again when I'm well. It's happening right now no matter my waiting for an 'all clear' or a death knell..." - Laura E. Garrard
Click Here to Order Paddling the Sweet Spot Chapbook!»
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Read Mom Egg Review by Mary Ellen Talley – Click Here!
“Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death follows a strong and inquisitive woman in the ebb and flow of a cancer journey from grief to acceptance. Laura E. Garrard’s beautiful chapbook will appeal to poetry lovers and health professionals, as well as to individuals challenged with health afflictions and their loved ones. Readers will want to savor and reread Garrard’s words.”
-Mary Ellen Talley, Mom Egg Review
Read Raven Chronicles Review by Dr. Vera Guertler – Click Here!
“Garrard wields word choice that invokes emotional engagement.”
-Dr. Vera Guertler, Raven Chronicles
Read Lauren Davis’ interview with Laura on The Poetry Cafe – Click here!
Latest
This Thursday, Double Book Launch at The Fine Arts Center
On May 21, 5:30-7 p.m., celebrate with Port Angeles poets Linda B. Myers and Laura E. Garrard at the launch of their respective poetry chapbooks, Load-Bearing Walls and Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death, at the Port Angles Fine Arts Center on Lauridsen Blvd. Poet S. Salazar will also read. Port Book and…
BLR Just Highlighted ‘Paddling’ In Their Bookstore
Bellevue Literary Review has highlighted Paddling the Sweet Spot on their Bookshop.org Store.
Attend Paddling the Sweet Spot LIVE Online Debut
Attend the online debut for my book, Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death, May 3, on Cultivating Voices LIVE Poetry.
“Laura E. Garrard’s poems are courageous compass-settings for navigating a place of balance and bodily, emotional and spiritual contending…” -Tess Gallagher, author of Is, Is Not
“The experiences of these poems by Laura E. Garrard reveal that for every corridor of grief there are as many rooms of sustaining light, and that is very human, that’s being much alive.” -Gary Copeland Lilley, poet and author of Raven on the Moaners’ Bench and The Bushman’s Medicine Show
“These vivid, sensory poems take us along as she swims in the wake of spotted dolphins, sees messages in barn swallows at play, and listens to alders at the edge of the lake where she finds peace. In the end, we arrive at her epiphany with gratitude for her hard-earned wisdom: ‘The closer we are to the glass door of death / The freer we are to cornerstone live.’” -Holly J. Hughes, author of Passings, winner of an American Book Award
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