Artist in the Spotlight: Ivy Rozen reads her Poem - God, Save the Turtle

Bio:Ivy Rozen is an Asheville-based poet whose work has been published in Fine Art Globe, Chatham Life & Style Magazine, Education NC, Bottlecap Press and more. Previously the senior editor of Black Mountain Press, Ivy was selected to judge the Elon University Historic Neighborhood’s annual Primavera Poetry Contest for 2026, and recently founded the Midnight Draft Poetry Collective, which provides free resources to poets of all backgrounds. Her first full-length collection of poems, If I Love You, is now available from Seed Bed Press.Synopsis:If I Love You is a coming-of-age told in wounds, in hunger, and in fruit plucked prematurely from its branches. Moving through five visceral stages—Raw, Ripe, Overripe, Rotten, and Replanted—Ivy Rozen’s debut full-length collection maps the brutal terrain of girlhood through fractured family bonds, inherited pain, danger-tainted desires, and the long, uneven path toward self-possession. These poems interrogate memory, survival, and the stories we’re forced to tell about our own bodies. Rozen writes with unflinching clarity about trauma, intimacy, and the quiet violence of being disbelieved, crafting a voice that is at once tender, furious, and darkly lyrical. A central pillar of the collection is unraveling family structures. The poems expose gaslighting, conditional loyalty, and a haunting, toxic inheritance passed down through generations of women. The book tackles the predatory nature of "kindness," and the emotional aftermath of violation. There is a gritty exploration of using recklessness and dissociation as armor against past trauma. The collection details the exhausting daily maintenance of living with trauma and anxiety. The overarching theme of the book is stubborn, defiant survival. www.IvyRozen.com Support the showPoems are green and Poetry is mean. -Poetry Beast Please accept my endless gratitude,I'm tickled pink,You're a gift!Thank you for your time and attention.It's a blessing you've stopped to observe and listen.ADDITIONAL INFO: @thebaldheadedpoet | Linktree