Yesterday's Playlist, by Ann Kammerer

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features. This collection of narrative poetry centers on a relatable, flawed young woman in a decayed Midwestern city as she navigates the rocky shoals of her family, friends and lovers. Seeking redemption and hope, she finds a way forward in a world that feels confusing and filled with despair. In Yesterday’s Playlist, Ann Kammerer propels a central character from trailer parks to bars to the hazed freeways of Los Angeles via Greyhound Bus. Spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kammerer’s debut chapbook draws on journalistic style to present mini-stories in free verse that ask readers to draw their own conclusions. While independent, each piece within this chorus of narrative poetry is connected by the common thread of Top 40 hits. Sparse, yet complete, Yesterday’s Playlist invites readers to enter a detached post-industrial world that manifests in connections through casual acquaintance or random strangers, linked by the backdrop of song. Ann Kammerer lives in Oak Park, Illinois, having recently moved from her home state of Michigan with her husband and daughter. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in The Thoughtful Dog, Open Arts Forum, The Ekphrastic Review, Fictive Dream, and anthologies by Crow Woods Publishing and Querencia Press. She received top honors in contests by Crow Woods and Current Magazine, and she made the short list for writing competitions by Driftwood Press and Tishman Review.