Ava Haymon reads from her new poetry collection: Why the House is Made of Gingerbread

   “In Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread, Ava Leavell Haymon turns inside out the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Finding the ‘walls of gingerbread . . . not on plumb,’ she begins ‘before the story began’ to re-imagine and re-contextualize the narrative elements of voice, place, conflict, and resolve. With formal care and invention, Haymon has crafted in this poetic sequence a suspenseful ‘insistent new version’ of magical intensity and power.”—Claudia Emerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

In Ava Leavell Haymon’s third collection, an unremarkable, harried, contemporary woman named Gretel finds herself at midlife overtaken by the Grimms’ household tale “Hansel and Gretel.” The violence and terror in that story supplant the memory of her own childhood, and the fairy tale retells itself in a sharp succession of surprising poems. The witch, the sugar house, Gretel’s brother, her passive father, his cruel second wife, the sinister forest—all these and more rise like jazz motifs to play themselves in the present. Addressing themes such as hunger, child abuse, betrayal, cannibalism, and murder in a tone by turns disturbing and humorous, Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread is most certainly not a book for children.

    “Ava Haymon is far from the first poet to explore a children’s tale for its adult forms and implications, but she is one of the best. There is rich variety here in the strange convergences of fantasy and what might be called reality. The wickedness that lurks in ordinary life keeps bumping up against the poet’s ability to make a hilarious context for such a phrase as ‘a quiet blessing of pedagogy.’ This is an immensely enjoyable collection.”—Henry Taylor

    “‘Hansel and Gretel’ is one of the most disturbing of fairy tales. Its themes and images have provided subject matter for paintings, stories, and operas that always fascinate. Now Ava Leavell Haymon’s brilliant collection of poems holds to the light numerous dark facets of the tale and brings to bear a haunting sympathy that searches out surprising implications. This poet sings the old songs, ‘the hard lullabys,’ in a different and surprising key.”—Fred Chappell

Ava Leavell Haymon is the author of the poetry collections Kitchen Heat and The Strict Economy of Fire. She teaches poetry writing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and directs a writers’ retreat center in the mountains of New Mexico.