Ilyssa Goldsmith

Can I Be Candid? is a book of poetry, which asks the reader to take a detour past trauma and to a place where loss, pain, love, and beauty might become transmuted into something new. In this debut chapbook, Goldsmith turns to myths and stars in order to understand the process of awakening.

"I know Desire. I hate her, but in my solace, I still love her." In a world where desire is fashioned as a tool for enchantment, women wage wars with their words. Enter Isla, a strong headed sixteen-year-old girl, who desires to become an enchantress - a wise woman who grants patrons their token of desire with the snap of her fingers and a whimsical word. Enter Sybil, a privileged seventeen-year-old girl, who holds a direct claim to the Council of Amara - the esteemed organization, which rules over enchantresses everywhere. As the trial to become Head of the Council ensues, desire takes root. In this linked collection, stories bleed golden as women fight to reclaim their voices on the page.

Goodbye (Hello) is a love letter to the stranger, the lover, and the beloved. It is a recovered poem written for the person we may meet once, perchance never to meet again. In her first poetry collection, Goldsmith re-imagines the fine line, which exists between all hellos and goodbyes. Here, the poet raises a new provocation-one which appears to be nostalgic and old. It is just this: every goodbye is secretly an unmet hello in disguise.