Karla Huston recently earned a MA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She is the author of four chapbooks of poetry: A Halo of Watchful Eyes (Wolf Angel Press, 1997), Flight Patterns (Main Street Rag Press, 2003), and Virgins on the Rocks (Parallel Press, 2004). She received residencies from the Ragdale Foundation in 1998 and 2002. She has published poetry, reviews and interviews in many journals including Cimarron Review, 5AM, Free Verse, Library Journal, Margie, North American Review, One Trick Pony, Pearl, and Rattle.

About Catch and Release:

"The are certain poets whose work I keep beside my bed—for inspiration solace, and instruction in how to live. Karla Huston is one of these. No one else I know writes as well or as thrillingly about what it means to be alive in a woman's body (specifically a middle-aged woman's body), or what it feels like to remember in that woman's body. In Catch and Release, this stunning new collection, Huston takes her earlier investigations of memory, desire, and the sweet, daily details of live even further in praise-songs of yearning and discovery. Daring, self-aware, and wise, these poems speak with great authority and are unafraid to 'praise great and dangerous things.' Huston is a poet who 'unzip[s] down to the skin, ' revealing the 'riches hidden in some dark, sparkling place.' Lucid, unsentimental, sensual, and breathtaking lyrical, these poems cast sparks that set the page afire, illuminating past and present, innocence and experience, the life of the body and the life of the imagination with unparalleled candor and insight. It's quite simply one of the best books I've read during the past year."
—Alison Townsend

"Karla Huston's Catch and Release is a meeting ground where observation of the natural world meets the psychological nuance of humanity. These poems are deep, reflective, moving—without sacrifice to keen wit. They serve the intrinsic value of each of us as readers. Here is a poetic journey which wisely travels the road from unknowing. Expect the best."
—Robert Nazarene

Other poems by Karla Huston in Verse Daily:

November 11, 2004:  "Niagara Falls Jumper Explains" "I wasn't trying to kill myself..."