From GATHERING VOLUMES
Local poet Pella {f}elton will unleash a flock of poems on local audiences when she lands her debut collection, “{f}ragile Nests,” at Gathering Volumes.
A reading will take place on Saturday, July 18, at 2:30 p.m., at Gathering Volumes, 200 E South Boundary St., Perrysburg. The afternoon will also feature a special guest reading from Detroit poet Catherine Batsios. Gathering Volumes serves as the exclusive brick-and-mortar bookseller of “{f}ragile Nests” in the Toledo area.
This event is the local cornerstone of {f}elton’s multi-week “Summer Migration Tour” in support of her book, which is available now from Roadside Press.
“I spent most of my life living in other people’s spaces trying to pretend like I fit in,” said {f}elton. “‘{f}ragile Nests’ documents my escape. Writing this book often felt like one of those disaster movies where you’re running away as the ground collapses around you. That’s why I like birds. They can fly over the rubble.”
“I think a lot about starlings,” {f}elton continued. “They don’t build nice homes. Starling[s] build out of what raw materials they have, twigs, dirt, excrement. For me those materials were my past – the archives, the myths, and the ‘boxes that shouldn’t exist.’ The spaces I occupy are never meant to last forever, but for now, I’m ecstatic that Gathering Volumes can be a home for my words.”
The book is available for purchase online at Magicaljeep.com as well as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Gathering Volumes.
One of northwest Ohio’s only independently-owned bookstores, Gathering Volumes celebrated its 10-year anniversary in June and is a consistent home for local authors, particularly those in the LGBTQIA+ community.
“It’s important to me that local poets have a footprint in local bookstores,” {f}elton said. “In an era where so much of our cultural ecosystem feels under attack, I take a lot of comfort in the feral tenacity of independent booksellers like Denise [Phillips].”
“Pella often shows up in our store unannounced in the middle afternoon to browse books, share gossip, and see what local authors we have in stock,” said Gathering Volumes owner Denise Phillips. “We’re very proud to be hosting Pella and her book.”
The July 18 event will also introduce local audiences to Flint, Michigan, native Catherine Batsios, author of the 2025 collection, “Streetlamp Nautilus” (Luchador Press).
“I met Cat when she was one of the members at the co-op bookstore Book Suey in Hamtramck,” {f}elton said. “We are very similar and very different. She’s one of the only poets I know that can match me punch for punch in performance, ferocity, and neurospiciness. Catherine’s poetry captures the exact chaotic, wine-drunk energy of a Detroitland on the edge. It’s Richard Scary’s ‘Busytown’ for drunk people. What I love about her writing is how off-kilter her verse is. I recently read that Detroit was named the most stressful city in the United States. ‘Streetlamp Nautilus’ captures that anxiety as a feature and not a bug. I couldn’t ask for a more stubbornly brave poet to share this launch with.”
Additional “Summer Migration Tour” dates:
- Saturday, July 11, Uncloistered Poetry, at The Attic on Adams in Toledo, with Kerry Trautman and James Hamilton
- Sunday, July 12, Book Suey, Detroit, with W. Joe Hoppe, Mx Madds, and Patience Young
- Thursday, July 16, The Rhizome House, Cleveland Heights
- Sunday, July 19, Tea Room 101, Mansfield, with Lucas Hargas and Mark Jordan
{f}elton is a poet, independent scholar, and performance artist based out of northwest Ohio. She holds an M.A. in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University, and a certificate in Performance Studies from Bowling Green State University. A proponent for performance as a site of community-building, {f}elton has presented her work at the Toledo Fringe Festival, the Winter Wheat Literary Festival, and the 2023 Marvin Center TEDx Conference at BGSU.
Batsios is a Flint, Michigan, native and the author of “Streetlamp Nautilus.” Her inventive and visually dizzying verse documents a variety of places, personalities, and moments from an urban landscape asserting its survival across the Rust Belt.
