[08/31/26] Alter, Eva: Sea-oath

Hesse Press, paperback

Publication Date: August 31, 2026

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Sea-oath is a catalog of internal and generational mythologies, a procedural formalist poetic experiment, and a transcript of an internal trial between the speaker and God.

Alter approaches the central theological reckoning of the collection through constructed metrical forms, neologistic indexing, and paratactic syntax in an attempt to articulate and organize memories and histories that had originally been buried by dissociation, self-punishment, and mental and physical escape.

What kind of God permits and witnesses the cyclical transmission of suffering, and how can I understand my life and my path within my inheritance?

Eva Alter is an information scientist, procedural formalist poet, and Jewish-Tidewater-Appalachian American. Her poetry has been published in Hobart, American Poetry Journal, Bruiser Magazine, Appalachian Journal, Reform Jewish Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her debut chapbook AUTOCARTOGRAPHIES was published by Eulogy Press in October 2025.