[04/06/27] Melnick, Lynn: I Deserve This, Thank You

American Poetry Review, paperback

Publication Date: April 6, 2027

Publisher Marketing: 

Winner of The American Poetry Review's Stern Prize, Lynn Melnick's fierce new collection celebrates the hard-earned wisdom and unruly power of midlife.

In I Deserve This, Thank You, Lynn Melnick offers a stinging, wry, and deeply personal exploration of womanhood over fifty. Building on Melnick's career-long commitment to feminist themes, these poems turn their focus toward a demographic too often rendered invisible by a youth-obsessed culture, using robust, precise language to dismantle outdated illusions. Rooted in the author's formative years in Los Angeles, these poems confront the glittering, often hollow influence of Hollywood and delve into the raw, shadowy corners of womanhood, motherhood, and political survival. This is not a polite reflection on aging; it is an inventive, forthright reckoning with the strength, anger, and resilience that come with time. I Deserve This, Thank You is a collection for anyone seeking to trade comfortable lies for hard-won truths.