I Tell Henrietta (Perfect Bound)

ABOUT

“Tina Barry's startling and eclectic I Tell Henrietta pushes the hybrid aesthetic envelope forward. Part poetry, part micro, these written gems are vividly unclassifiable. Suffused with astute observation, memory and crystalline imagery, Barry's collection is a must read for those who love small works containing multitudes.”

-Nathan Leslie, Best Small Fictions, Hurry Up and Relax

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I Tell Henrietta is Tina Barry’s third full-length collection. Tina has been published widely in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and anthologies, including Rattle, Verse Daily, and The Best Small Fictions 2020 (spotlighted story) and 2016. Tina holds an MFA in creative writing from Long Island University, Brooklyn. She’s been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction awards. Tina is a teaching artist at the Poetry Barn and Writers.com. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, the ceramic artist Bob Barry.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kristin Flynn earned a BFA in fashion design from Parsons School of Design, an AAS degree in Textiles from Rochester Institute of Technology, and studied painting at Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows, including the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, Stone Ridge Center for the Arts, Jane Street Gallery Studio 89, Brick Gallery, Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art, and Bard College. 

Kristin’s residencies include the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson Vermont, Jentel Foundation in Sheridan, Wyoming, and the Platte Clove A.I.R. in Arkville, New York. Kristin had an extensive career in the fashion industry as an apparel designer at Nike in Portland, Oregon. She created and directed a fashion design degree program at SUNY Ulster Community College.

ADVANCE PRAISE

Tina Barry’s astonishing collection I Tell Henrietta explores thresholds between the dream world and wakefulness, and between poetry and prose. Throughout this book Barry shares truths of girlhood and womanhood, showcasing moments that drift from real into surreal. While the speaker’s confidante in the collection is often the figure of Henrietta, the reader also feels like an intimate part of the storytelling, privy to wonders like, “rivers swirled black, trees pulled from their roots, / tipped to the ground.” Barry has a talent for recasting ordinary scenes in a way that transforms them into deeply felt revelations that resonate far beyond the page.

—Mary Biddinger, author of Department of Elegy

Line up the poems in Tina Barry’s I Tell Henrietta on the bar and take them like shots (alluring, astringent) without any chaser. When you wake up, dare the mirror. You’ll find wing-scars, a cigarette burn or two, tattoos you can’t remember getting, all love’s bruises. And you’ll thank Barry for every single mark.

—Joshua Davis, author of Reversal Spells in Blue and Black

In I Tell Henrietta, Tina Barry draws us into a world both familiar and startling. Her stories are filled with absent fathers who are “with the circus,” swans in unexpected iterations, and teenagers “narrow as needlefish.” Barry’s stories are shared with the elusive title character Henrietta, who listens, sometimes skeptically, but who always elicits more. These poems are soft explosions of beautiful imagery and language and heart. A rich and satisfying read, a journey you will be glad you have taken.

—Francine Witte, author of RADIO WATER

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

AIM Higher is a nonprofit press that publishes works that blur boundaries, negate binaries, interrogate, confound, and delight. We endeavor to open portals into unmapped and magical dimensions, and honor intuition and collaboration.