Books
Poetry
Turbulence in Small Spaces https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/turbulence-in-small-spaces-by-adele-evershed/
Turbulence in Small Spaces is a collection written for and about women. The poems explore love, loss, heartbreak, healing, and getting older. Dealing with toxic relationships, violence against women, and family dynamics, they confront the expectations placed on women and examine the challenges that aging brings. Ultimately, these poems offer the hope that wherever you experience turbulence—whether it be in a supermarket, at home, or in your mental health—you can grow, heal, and gain wisdom from having survived.
In her poem, “Maybe I Give a Damn” Evershed channels Langston Hughes and asks, “What does disappointment smell like? Is it the scent of another steak and kidney pie that oozes gravy like a bloody wound, that is pushed around your plate until it disintegrates into mush?” In one sentence the writer has us taste personal regret in a way that will linger with us long after we put the book down. Her poems are miniature monuments to human longing, strength and frailty, which pull from her Welsh heritage and an understanding of the world at large. She moves between fable and fact, lyricism and pop culture with the ease of a master. I’ll tell you what disappointment doesn’t smell like, Evershed’s imagination and command of language.
–Sharbari Ahmed, Author, screenwriter, playwright, educator, Dust Under Her Feet, The Ocean of Mrs Nagai, Raisins, Not Virgins
The Brink of Silence https://bottlecap.press/products/brink?keyword=adele
The Brink of Silence is a collection of poems composed of unapologetically honest moments that touch on love, loss, heartbreak, healing, change, and self-acceptance.
Some of the poems in the collection evoke women’s changing relationships to their bodies, reflecting on society’s expectations for women and the challenges that aging brings in a culture obsessed with youth. The poem “The Gaze As She Leaves the Country Club’s Annual Cocktail Party” deals with this directly: the narrator “misplaces” her orgasm, an image that is both playful and knowing; the speaker is confronting the knowledge that she is losing her sexual currency as she grows older. Similarly, in “#SomethingFishyGoingOn,” the poem brings attention to the near-invisibility of cultural conversations around menopause.
Other poems deal with bereavement, mourning, and how that grief changes and evolves over time. The poem “Threads” is autobiographical, dealing with the death of the poet’s mother and her realization that “she had left me just enough / to remember / but not enough to know.” In “Crosses and Other Hard to Bear Things,” the poet ponders her own mortality and the difficult question of how we would like to leave the world.
Ultimately, the poems invite readers to reflect on their own experiences of aging, grief, and loss, hopefully making the conversations around these complex issues a little less silent.
Prose
Wannabe
“Wannabe” is a novella-in-flash that delves into the intricacies of girlhood, womanhood, and the human experience with its vivid imagery and raw emotion. This poetic and powerful portrayal explores the depths of yearning, dreaming, and ultimately accepting oneself amidst the aftermath of abuse and trauma, and the societal expectations that loom.
– Alien Buddha Press
Adele Evershed’s prose expertly interrogates those often elusive “in-between” places in our everyday lives. Her subtle building of tension alongside character packs such weight and insight into each line that reading her work feels like getting away with something secret and dangerous
Lukas Tallent, Editor at Wrong Turn Lit
Adele Evershed writes flash fiction with insightful short sentences and descriptive snapshots of authentically observed human behaviour. But resonating from those well-crafted words are prompts to the emotions within that for the reader can last long after the reading stops.
Ian Rushton, Free Flash Fiction
Schooled
Schooled is a gripping, darkly humorous examination of a world few dare to scrutinize so closely, capturing the essence of life’s brutal truths with unflinching clarity. Adele Eversheddeliversa masterful portrayal of the forces that shape and often shatter the idealism of youth.
The narrative dives deep into the psyches of students and faculty alike, revealing a world where ambition, secrets, and desires collide in unexpected ways. Evershed’s prose is sharp and unrelenting, painting a vivid portrait of a world where the lines between right and wrong blur, and the pursuit of knowledge often comes at a steep cost.
A brilliant followup to Evershed’s 2023 Alien Buddha Press debut, Wannabe.
Suffer/Rage https://a.co/d/f0CbYFl
In the wake of the #MeToo movement comes a collection of short stories that challenge the reader to consider how women have suffered through the ages and continue suffering now. The primary connection between the stories in the collection, Suffer/Rage, is that they are stories of and about women. Each woman in the collection has suffered, whether at the hands of men, society, or other women. Those they love, those that should love them, even their own bodies and minds, have betrayed them at some time. Some of these women are nameless, some only have their names to hold onto, and some are looking for new names to go with the possibility of new lives.
Some stories tackle sexual assault, abortion, mental health issues, aging, and surviving against the odds. Regardless of the genre employed, there is a profoundly feminist and, at times, gurlesque tone to the stories. There are sharp and smart gestures toward body, femininity, and patriarchy, and you get a sense of simmering rage throughout.
As one of the story’s protagonists says, “All you have to do is listen in the bright dawn, and you will hear tender violence, the noise of women.” When you have finished reading Suffer/Rage, you will hear the voices of all the women vibrating in your bones, and you will ask yourself if you should choose to be a “coward or a revolutionary.”
A History of Hand Thrown Walls
History of Hand Thrown Walls by Adele Evershed is a captivating novella-in-flash, blending interconnected flash fiction pieces with the timeless presence of hand-built walls scattered across Connecticut. Each story stands alone with its own beginning, middle, and end, yet together they weave a narrative tapestry deeply rooted in Connecticut’s landscape and history.The collection takes diverse forms, including letters, pamphlets, poems, and traditional flash fiction, offering readers a rich and varied reading experience. Spanning centuries, the novella begins with tales from pre-colonial times, journeys through pivotal moments in history, and culminates in a dystopian future.Recognized for its innovation and depth, A History of Hand Thrown Walls was shortlisted for The Reflex Novella Awards, making it to the final eight out of 145 submissions. This is a work where past, present, and imagination converge through the lens of storytelling.
Writer | The Lit Hag 