Order your copy of Raised in the World of Everyday Poets here. It’s a book about my parents and their relationship to poetry, memory, and each other.

“Have you heard of the flawless, beautifully cut Blue Jager diamonds? Darlene
O’Dell’s book is one such. It begins with these lines: ‘the creak of an old trunk’—
a window to the soul indeed! Every haibun reveals a couple’s personalities, each
facet clear as day. It’s a poignant and layered tribute written by a doting child.
This book is not to be missed.”
— Kala Ramesh

“In their very authenticity, Darlene O’Dell’s haiku and haibun both capture and
transcend the personal. Vivid snippets of family folklore—forklift and coffee cup
miracles—help us recall our own. The fine texture of her memories—constricting
patent leather shoes, scratchy lawn chairs—elicit similar (or the same!) sensations
in others. But the unifying thread here is poetry, a lifeline from parent to child to
adult—one that may not save us from life’s adversities, but just might sustain us.”
— Scott Mason

Dr. Darlene O’Dell is the author of Raised in the World of Everyday Poets, The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven (Seabury Books, 2014), Sites of Southern Memory: The Autobiographies of Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin, Lillian Smith, and Pauli Murray (University Press of Virginia, 2003), I Followed Close Behind Her (Spinsters Ink, 2001), and numerous articles. Read her poetry in Modern Haiku, Contemporary Haibun, Presence, Frogpond, Wales Haiku Journal, Sonic Boom, failed haiku, Under the Basho, and the museum of americana.