Poor Substitute, by JP McDougald

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features. A whirlwind tryst, a car-crash love, doomed from the start - but a drive so vibrant and alive, you can’t bring yourself to brake. What happens when it’s over and the wheels have stopped spinning? What other way is there to survive the ache than scribbling poetry in every margin as you become who you will be in the aftermath? Poor Substitute isn’t just another break-up collection; it’s angsty and angry and honest. McDougald outlines the path from heartache and destruction to rediscovery and reclamation of oneself in imagery so thick, you can feel the southern humidity rising from the pages. When JP McDougald first found her love for writing, she let it swallow her; she writes in self-defense and has become an expert at killing her darlings. JP and her husband live in Raleigh, NC, with their three daughters. When she’s not writing, you can find her in the carpool line, in the grocery pick-up lot, or in the yard, willing her sunflowers to bloom.