Embracing Grief & Hope with Cheryl Slover-Linett

In this episode, Andrea and Rebecca are joined by poet Cheryl Slover-Linett for a deeply moving conversation about grief, trauma, motherhood, land, and the healing power of poetry. Cheryl shares how her life experiences shaped her work, including the long arc of writing The Seduction of the Daughter in 15 Pieces and the emotional care required to tell a traumatic story without overwhelming herself or the reader.In this episode, we talk about:The strange emotional tension of Colorado spring: beauty, heat, fire risk, and uneaseCheryl’s grief origin story and the moments that shaped her early lifeHow trauma, memory, and grief show up in poetic formWriting about sexual violence with care, specificity, and boundariesThe role of nature in holding difficult creative workMother wounds, protection, and the grief of not being fully protectedLand, colonization, ancestry, and the grief embedded in placeHope, recovery, and what it means to keep living with unresolved painThe embodied power of poetry and why form mattersFeatured guestCheryl Slover-LinettPoet based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has appeared in multiple literary journals, and she also leads wilderness retreats through Lead Feather, the nature-based nonprofit she founded in 2008.Poems featured in the episodeGlastonbury GuzzleMistletoeConnect with Cheryl:Get her book of poetry: https://dulcetshop.myshopify.com/products/the-seduction-of-the-daughter-in-fifteen-pieces-cheryl-slover-linett-copy Lead Feather Wilderness Retreat