Sundress Publications announces the release of Nomad, the winner of the 2023 E-Chapbook Contest. In this debut poetry chapbook, Heather Qin navigates a complex terrain of girlhood, cultural memory, and belonging. It vividly portrays landscapes both internal and external, from “summer’s lap” to “the throat of the earth,” using nature as a mirror for human experience. With unflinching honesty, the speaker confronts the aftermath of trauma and loss all while asking to “love yourself like something worth loving.” Ultimately, Qin offers a profound exploration of what it means to find a home within oneself, inviting us to witness the journey of a soul learning to belong in a world of loss and flux.
Rita Moorkerjee, author of False Offerings, writes “Heather Qin scales a complicated lattice of kinship and loneliness in Nomad. Like honey, the words of Qin’s frank yet earnest narrator linger on the lips: ‘That was the first time I got a haircut, laid still/against the porch as my mother slammed a knife/down the middle the way she prepared meat…Nomad is a delicious masterclass in both secret-keeping and secret-telling.”
You can download your copy of Nomad for free on the Sundress website!
Heather Qin (she/her) is a writer from New Jersey. A Best of the Net and Best New Poets nominee, her work has been recognized by The New York Times, Narrative, and The Adroit Journal, and can be found in The Margins, Diode, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Southern Humanities Review, among others. Besides writing, Heather loves classical music and reading.
