States of Arousal

Winner of the 2022 Louise Bogan Award, Sunshine O'Donnell's States of Arousal offers a gripping and relevant poetry collection outlining the modern human experience. Violence and love are evoked in equal measure, making up the foreground of collective tragedies such as American school shootings and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Nostalgia is infused into O'Donnell's imagery, bringing Philadelphia to life as both haunted and beautiful: "For decades I collect/ goodbye letters and try to hide them/ from myself." States of Arousal is a collection that takes on large-scale issues with intimate and vulnerable imagery. The reader is confronted by the brutality of the modern world while simultaneously comforted by the delicate displays of the human spirit.