April Through July, Garrard Spoke About Her New Book and Followed In the Path of Washington Poets
From Port Angeles to Everett, and every regional literary power stop in between, Garrard discussed her debut chapbook (Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death) with generous audiences. She sprinkled her poetic words about responses to cancer, facing death, Nature and Spiritual resonance, overcoming, and present-minded living. She emphasized “Paddling the Sweet Spot,” focusing on present priorities and trust amidst the waves of health recovery.
“As I take a break and reflect on the whirlwind regional book tour I conducted, as encouraged by fellow published poets in my area, what comes to mind are the words celebration and collaboration,” Garrard said. “I feel included in the community of Northwest poets, who identified in me something I am still considering – an unapologetically honest voice, which probably comes from health advocacy and my upbringing.”
“I also feel cleansed, supported, and freer.” Garrard said. “It was a difficult decision to make my health path public, but these poems serve a purpose beyond publication. Now that my health is well-maintained, and my affected hip replaced, just in time for this tour I might add, I can read these poems with an assured energy to others who are overcoming their own health challenges, grief, and losses of different kinds, and offer hope.”
“I also want to continue to draw a clear connection between the health of humankind and the health of Nature,” she said. “We should have empathy for beings beyond our species, and also look toward our global village.”
Below are some of the moments Garrard shared with audiences and other poets, followed by links to reviews and excerpts of interviews.
“Thank you to those who provided photos to me, including the bookstore and event facilitators who stepped in. And many thanks to those who assisted me in too many ways to make specific mention, from connections to homestays to the perfect stage set-ups. So much work goes into events, and I am very honored to have taken part.”
– Laura E. Garrard
Local News
Link to Book Reviews
Raven Chronicles, April 5, 2026, Review by Vera Guertler
Mom Egg Review (MER), Feb. 21, 2026, Review by Mary Ellen Talley
Interviews with Garrard
today, Laura’s interview with Two Sylvias Press’ Weekly Muse posted on substack.
“TSP: Your debut chapbook Paddling the Sweet Spot Between Life and Death (Finishing Line Press, 2026) contains poems that “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,” according to poet Gary Copeland Lilley. In your poem “The Walk,” you write, “Living is precious / The trick is / Not wanting it too much / Not calling death closer.” Do you feel like the process of writing this book gave you more insight into living, or do you feel like insight came first, before you began this book?
LG: The poem you chose is interesting in relationship to this question because I wrote it while residing in Rochester, Minnesota, for six weeks to receive proton therapy (or radiation treatment) at Mayo Clinic. This period was toward the beginning of my cancer experience when there was still hope for a cure. My hip possessed a rare tumor, a singular plasmacytoma, which was successfully treated, but in the next year a systemic blood cancer, multiple myeloma, developed. Writing poetry during these experiences not only expressed my thoughts and emotions about what I was going through, but also aided my mind in dealing with it all. However, I began to write these poems well before a book came into being or was a thought. I believe the insights I gained were therefore catalysts of the poems and eventually the book. My poetry muse is often a spontaneous “ah-ha” observation inside or outside myself.…”
To read the entire interview, consider joining Two Sylvias Press’ Weekly Muse through Substack. This newsletter membership provides essays, prompts, Zoom workshops, publication submission opportunities, poet focuses and news, and interviews.
Excerpt from The Poetry Cafe interview with Lauren Davis:
LG: “Readers may notice how my thoughts about my own death evolve from shock, to grief, and to acceptance of it as a natural cycle alongside living, playing, and observing. The reader travels with the speaker through this arc of the book and her observations of and participation in nature. Living in the present, sharing grief with one another, and loving, are the speaker’s priorities as a living person who is also dying. We are all simultaneously living and dying, no matter how quickly or slowly death comes. Why fear what is inevitable and spend precious energy on worry? Notice how the barn swallows play as the sun sets, how feeding and nurturing the next generations consume them. Notice how salmon give themselves to death even as they lay and fertilize eggs. Are they focused on birth or death? Most likely birth.”
Read the entire interview by clicking here.
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