Loving the Dead

Winner of the 2020 Blue Light Press Book Award

We belong to each other “even in the worst day,” Helga Kidder writes in her fourth collection of poems, Loving the Dead. That belonging encompasses the arcing heavens, the “bruised moon,” the trilling Earth, the sometimes prideful tug of our closest relations. Growing up in Germany’s Black Forest, Kidder brings “luck in [my] luggage” to a new continent, with new eyes and hopes, to remind us, “You must turn on your own light.” And she does, honoring both her sister’s life and packing us for the luminous journey into memory’s beam and vapor.  

About the Author                                                                                             

Helga Kidder is a native of Germany’s Black Forest region and lives in the Tennessee hills with her husband.  She was awarded an MFA in Writing from Vermont College.  She is co-founder of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and leads their poetry group.  She has participated in workshops in San Francisco, CA, Rockvale, TN, and Auvillar, France.  Her poems have been published in many journals and anthologies. She has three poetry collections, Wild Plums (2012 Finishing Line Press), Luckier than the Stars (2013 Blue Light Press), and Blackberry Winter (2016 Blue Light Press).