CHARM(ed) by Ashley Elizabeth

Welcome home, hon. CHARM(ed) chronicles Baltimore life and grapples with the idea of home and belonging. It also celebrates a city with deep roots, history, and culture—particularly the food. With the added element of photographs, this collection blends visual art and written word as part love letter, part critique of the goings-on in Charm City.

Ashley Elizabeth (she/her) is a Pushcart-nominated writer and teacher from Baltimore, MD. Her poetry has appeared in SWWIM, Voicemail Poems, and West Trestle Review, among others. Ashley’s debut full-length collection, A Family Thing, was released with Redacted Books/ELJ Editions (2024). She is also the author of chapbooks you were supposed to be a friend (2020) and black has every right to be angry (2023). When Ashley isn’t teaching or working as the Chapbook Editor with Sundress Publications, she habitually posts on Twitter and Instagram (@ae_thepoet). She lives with her partner and their cats.

“Like the sayers who held aloft the ancient conch shells to gather the tribe, these poems sing and were made possible by the ancestors. They are haunting and subtle in their intensity. They come from a long line of Black folk! Ashley Elizabeth is in conversation with artists like Hughes, Cullen, Billie, and Nina who have all managed to evoke the Charm City. Here is a poet that skillfully shows us a Baltimore we miss at our own peril. Simply put, the book you hold in your hands is necessary to our survival.” —T. J. Anderson III