Books
“High heaven refuses blue, returning azure to the retina…To our senses things offer only their rejections.
We know them by their refuse. Perfume is what the flowers throw away.”
–Paul Valéry
My poetry manuscript, Locomotive Cathedral, will be published by Backwaters Press, an imprint of the University of Nebraska, in early 2025! Contest judge, Hilda Raz, chose it for honorable mention. You can read more about her selection and what she said about my collection here. A certain crow with one foot features prominently in Locomotive Cathedral.
MOTHER, LOOSE
Full of ripe, aching music, Brandel France de Bravo's MOTHER, LOOSE captures the overlap between what we chant as comfort and what we choose as elegy. Nursery rhymes become impishly twisted: "Social climber,/ they called me," Humpty Dumpty admits, while Mary and her lamb pick out "Teat Peach" polish to get their nails done. But another mother hovers, her "dry cough flowering" into malignancy, and a walk beneath the about-to-bloom cherry trees of DC becomes a bittersweet recognition of "Resurgence…as after / dormancy, remission, as after a sleep / we knew we would wake from." Deft and heartbreaking, these poems ask us to step out from under the sheltering wing of Mama Goose, and into the arms of Morpheus. Let this collection cradle your heart in its hand.
—Sandra Beasley, author of I WAS THE JUKEBOX and COUNT THE WAVES
REVIEWS
A review of Mother, Loose by Hannah Rodabaugh in PANK here.
A review of Mother, Loose by Grace Cavalieri in the Washington Independent Review of Books (March 2015 Exemplars) under "Best Chapbooks."
A review of Mother, Loose by Sivan Butler-Rotholz in Diode here.
A review of Mother, Loose by Michael Dennis on Today's Book of Poetry can be read here.
PROVENANCE
Winner of the 2008 Washington Writers' Publishing House Prize
Finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards, 2008
…great verbal richness and ingenuity of word and mind; such a project shouldn’t work, going through the alphabet for poems, but obviously you torque and twist and personalize it; the poems are beautifully written meditations at lots of different distances. Really striking. Beautiful book!
—Tony Hoagland
Sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, sharply etched and sharply worded, Provenance is a book of alphabets and fables, of narrative precision and verbal passion. Across a host of exotic locales, and through the labyrinth of etymology, Brandel France de Bravo is a poet of restless travel and linguistic inquiry—what luck for the reader who accompanies her on the voyage!
—Campbell McGrath
In Provenance, Brandel France de Bravo writes with urgency of continuous displacement, an exile status rendering her exquisitely sensitive to the textures of daily life. She is forever a stranger among those who do not ask “where I’m from, but where I’ve just come from, / which country I left last.” At home in many cultures, at home innone, this gifted poet transforms a search for identity into a voyage through language, and finds her true roots in the alphabet letters that generate experience. This is a remarkable first book, and an important one in our time.
—Grace Schulman
REVIEWS
Michael Dennis, “Today’s Book of Poetry.”
MEXICAN POETRY TODAY: 20/20 VOICES
About Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices, edited by Brandel France de Bravo (Shearsman)
Octavio Paz wrote that “to read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears.” The bilingual anthology, Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices, features poets born after World War II—sometimes dubbed the post-Paz generation—all of them masters of synesthesia. Like any good anthology, Mexican Poetry Today opens a door to the strangely beautiful and resonant, bringing the news that people die every day for lack of. It also invites readers who know little of Mexico or its literary traditions to discover that richness. The poets in this collection come from all over Mexico, and as editor I feel compelled to sing their diversity: they are cosmopolitan and provincial; they write in free verse and in traditional forms; they are straight and gay, of the academy and of the street; they are the grandchildren of fishermen, bankers and Russian revolutionaries. In this Mexico, pan dulce (Mexican pastry) shares a plate with swallow’s nest soup, and the rosary is said while observing Rosh Hashanah.
REVIEWS
Reviewed in Borderlands, Texas Poetry Review (Winter 2012).
TREES MAKE THE BEST MOBILES
As seen on the Today Show and in Parenting Magazine
Now out in Paperback!
Praise for Trees Make the Best Mobiles: Simple Ways to Raise Your Child in a Complex World
"This book is a practical contemplation -- a haiku for parents. Pick it up to calm down and clarify the simple objective of parenting: to be a present guide in the life of your child. As the mother of four, I know the pressures that pull us out of the moment. Jessica Teich and Brandel France de Bravo help relocate the values of listening, seeing, and sharing the discovery of each day with a child."
—Meryl Streep, actor and mother of four.
“This book encourages parents to do less, buy less, and plan fewer activities. It’s about learning to be with your baby, and letting your baby be.”
—Laura Dern, Actor, Vanity Fair, 2003
“The authors speak with a warmth and clarity that reassures and informs parents just when they need it most. Theirs is a deft, appreciated touch in the shouting match that so often characterizes parenting books.”
—Kyle D. Pruett, M.D., Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University, author of Me, Myself and I: How Children Build Their Sense of Self
"In our fast-paced, high-pressure world, it's easy to get drawn into a stressful, painstaking form of parenting. In this lovely little book, Jessica Teich and Brandel France de Bravo remind us that the best parenting is often simple and instinctive -- and they give practical ideas for helping parents stay present and see the wonder and connection, even when changing diapers. A perfect book for new parents who want to break through the clutter and raise their children mindfully."
—Richard Carlson, Ph.D., author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
“It is a great book for new moms. It’s a small book but has some calming, practical ideas about how to keep things simple, trust your instincts and to not stress about the little things but instead, to just enjoy the process of helping your child grow up.”
—Heidi Klum, model, The New York Observer, 2005
"What a wonderful world we'd have if all children were raised with the sensitivity, insight and wisdom found in this delightful book.”
—Elaine St. James, author of Simplify Your Life with Kids
“A light and lovely Zen-influenced collection…Their practical advice is peppered with loving reminders that for many mothers, life is too pressured and too fast.”
—Fit Pregnancy
Read what the U.K.'s Telegraph Newspaper has to say about Trees and "slow parenting" in Less is more when bringing up baby by Christina Hopkinson.