At the Cleaners, by Ann Kammerer

Poetry, chapbook, 48 pages, from Bottlecap Features. In At the Cleaners, Ann Kammerer spins the inner workings of a small-town dry-cleaning business as seen by a young counter clerk. Through a collection of mini stories in verse, Kammerer introduces us to a set of characters whose relationships with one another often mirror the dirty laundry they take in. Set in the 1970s, At the Cleaners examines the roles of men and women during a time of societal change, and the perceived limitations of conventional lives. Kammerer’s interconnected narratives present portraits of desire and loneliness as everyday people look to redefine and elevate their circumstances, and to revitalize their lives as they might their finest clothes. Ann Kammerer lives in the Chicago area, and is a native of Michigan. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Fictive Dream, One Art, Open Arts Forum, Bright Flash Literary Review, Workers Write!, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, The Broken Spine, and elsewhere, and in anthologies by Querencia Press and Crow Woods Publishing. Her chapbook collections of narrative poetry include Yesterday’s Playlist (Bottlecap Press, 2023), Beaut (Kelsay Books, 2024), Friends Once There (Impspired, 2024), and Someone Else (Bottlecap Press, 2024). You can find her here: annkammerer.com