My Heresies

The poet will be joined in conversation by poet Alina Pleskova

Riven by the tension between hagiographies, utopias, belief, longing, and grief, the poems of My Heresies catalog a personal and familial history originating in Bucharest, Romania and landing in Birmingham, Alabama. Whether through sardonic takes on old Bible myths or homage paid to French-Romanian poet Paul Celan, Stefanescu’s poems are laden in subtext, in imagery sometimes abstract and lush, at other times stark and shocking. My Heresies probes the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, and the result is a hauntological mapping of life, love, family, and womanhood.

“The lyrical sweep and abandon of these poems is stunning. This is a poet who can be direct, metaphysical, compelling, humorous, intimate, playful—the list goes on. Truly, there is enough fire in these pages for seven poets. What a spellbinding book.”—Ilya Kaminsky 

Alina Ștefănescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. She’s the author of Ribald (Bull City Press Inch Series, 2020) and Dor, which won the Wandering Aengus Press Prize (September, 2021). Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Books Prize (April 2018). Alina’s poems, essays, and fiction can be found in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, World Literature Today, Pleiades, Poetry, BOMB, Crab Creek Review, and others. She serves as editor, reviewer, and critic for various journals and is currently working on a novel-like creature.

Alina Pleskova is a Moscow-born, Philadelphia-based poet and editor. Her poetry collection Toska (Deep Vellum, 2023) was a finalist for a 2024 Lambda Literary Award. You can find her work in various places, and her spirit in the astral realm.

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