Neon Pastoral - PRE-ORDER COMING SOON

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I'm thrilled to share with you that my full-length poetry collection, Neon Pastoral, has been selected by Matthew Rohrer as the winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Book Prize and will be published by Ashland Press in late 2025.

Below is a summary of the book taken from the publishers promotional materials:

"Blending dark humor, storytelling, and magic realism Valerie Perreault's Neon Pastoral takes us on a visionary and mythological journey through the fragmented unconscious of a lost pilgrim in a posthuman world. Both an eclectic travel log and guidebook that explores the dynamics of the Western cultural story and its effects on individual and collective evolution. Perreault’s poems are an intimate hero’s journey through violence, grief, despair, longing, redemption, and ultimately a return home. Both contemptuous and tender, she laughs while she weaves her rich personal folklore through vignettes of familiar everyday life and surreal imagined landscapes. And the imagery is strange: a woman reaches her hand into the mouth of a wolf and pets its tongue; a phone booth rings in the middle of the desert; an old bearded man kayaks down a river that cuts through a burning forest; a woman leaps out of a window mid-sentence… Perreault sings a low, life-affirming, incantatory song, and she taps you on the shoulder, asking you to join her." 

Neon Pastoral will be available in bookstores across the U.S., as well as online, including Amazon, direct from the publisher, and right here on my website. Please be sure to sign up for my newsletter so I can let you know when pre-ordering begins, and to keep you up to date on the book release party (with my tandem gallery exhibit). I'll also send out notices when I nail down the dates and locations for book readings and signings! 

Pre-order coming soon!

I'm thrilled to share with you that my full-length poetry collection, Neon Pastoral, has been selected by Matthew Rohrer as the winner of the Richard Snyder Memorial Book Prize and will be published by Ashland Press in late 2025.

Below is a summary of the book taken from the publishers promotional materials:

"Blending dark humor, storytelling, and magic realism Valerie Perreault's Neon Pastoral takes us on a visionary and mythological journey through the fragmented unconscious of a lost pilgrim in a posthuman world. Both an eclectic travel log and guidebook that explores the dynamics of the Western cultural story and its effects on individual and collective evolution. Perreault’s poems are an intimate hero’s journey through violence, grief, despair, longing, redemption, and ultimately a return home. Both contemptuous and tender, she laughs while she weaves her rich personal folklore through vignettes of familiar everyday life and surreal imagined landscapes. And the imagery is strange: a woman reaches her hand into the mouth of a wolf and pets its tongue; a phone booth rings in the middle of the desert; an old bearded man kayaks down a river that cuts through a burning forest; a woman leaps out of a window mid-sentence… Perreault sings a low, life-affirming, incantatory song, and she taps you on the shoulder, asking you to join her." 

Neon Pastoral will be available in bookstores across the U.S., as well as online, including Amazon, direct from the publisher, and right here on my website. Please be sure to sign up for my newsletter so I can let you know when pre-ordering begins, and to keep you up to date on the book release party (with my tandem gallery exhibit). I'll also send out notices when I nail down the dates and locations for book readings and signings! 

Pre-order coming soon!

Ashland Press has been publishing since the 1960's and has put out works by some of my favorite poets. I'm beyond grateful to have the opportunity to work with them on my first book.   This is what Matthew Rohrer, the final judge for the Richard Snyder Prize, had to say about Neon Pastoral:

“The mysterious Lala threads her way through these marvelously weird and irreverent poems that leap confoundingly from one subject to the next like a best friend telling you several stories at once. And her stories are about all the things we share in common in this world— Taco Bell, REM, emoticons, TikTok—and all the ways we still manage to create selves that are strange and estranged from the collective. The imagination in these poems is unrestrained, the voice is wry and the profound questions about life and meaning are sugar coated with hilarious and smart-ass set ups. By the end you’ll realize you’ve taken your medicine without noticing it.” 

And this generous quote from the two-time fellowship winner from the National Endowment of the Arts and writer of seven acclaimed poetry books, John Skoyles: 

"Open Valerie Perreault’s Neon Pastoral and be enveloped in non-stop brilliant language hitched to quick wit. Things happen fast. And often. Her world is unique although you will immediately recognize it. She has drained off the ordinary and stabs nouns into sentences like no one else―castrato poets, banshees, carnival donkeys, astroturf and misplaced souls show us the significant in the neglected parts of life. She is for certain the wittiest poet on the funniest planet." 

Guys, I can't wait.  I hope you love it. 

*Credit for this stunning painting of the woman with the carnations (titled: Incarnations) goes to the incredible artist, Kristin Kwan.  This piece will be on the cover of the book.  I had intended to create my own work for the cover, but once I saw this piece I knew this had to be it. If you read the book you will see exactly what I mean!