Teacup Cemetery, Poems by Mia Bachman

Teacup Cemetery by Mia Bachman is a poetic exploration of family, grief, addiction, gender identity, and the mother-child bond in the confessional mode.

Sample Poems by Mia Bachman

“Mia Bachman is a fierce, wise, imaginative, and authentic confessional poet, her work charged with the type of forthright honesty that places her in the tradition of Plath, Bukowski, and Nick Flynn. There are so many unforgettable moments in Teacup Cemetery—many of them exploring the poet’s harrowing childhood—and all of them are linked by Bachman’s relentless desire for self-knowledge, worldly understanding, and spiritual hope. This is American Poetry at its finest, and I have no doubt that Teacup Cemetery marks the beginning of what will be a long and accomplished career in letters for Mia Bachman. What a brilliant book this is, and what a brilliant writer Bachman is.”—Kareem Tayyar, Author of Keats in San Francisco

“Mia Bachman’s first book, Teacup Cemetery, is a poignant and intense exploration of a family undergoing near-constant trauma and a reminder of the palliative powers of poetry that allow the author to mine memory and imagination in search, not of redemption, but of some form of reconciliation with the self. Elegiac in subject – for childhood, innocence, and ultimately, the mother – the poems tonally incorporate a wide range of emotion as the poet employs vivid descriptions of family situations and dynamics. This book is fearless, and Bachman does not shy away from drawing connections between the mother’s struggles and those of the child. And yet, with all the pain – and relatively few moments of joy – detailed in highly evocative language, the poet does a remarkable job of eschewing the idea of blame. This well-wrought collection invites and challenges the reader to stay within the world of the poems, and it is worth doing so.”—Patty Seyburn, Author of Threshold Delivery