Ivy Tech faculty member publishes poetry

BLOOMINGTON – Ivy Tech Community College Bloomington faculty member, Christine Brandel, received notice that her collection of poetry, A Wife is A Hope Chest, will be published in 2017. Brain Mill Press and series editor Kiki Petrosino selected Brandel’s poetry for publication in the Mineral Point Poetry Series. Brandel’s collection will be published in a limited-edition fine first edition of 100 copies signed by the author, as well as trade print and digital formats, and will be made available internationally.

In A Wife Is a Hope Chest, Brandel writes:

A wife is a hope chest in which you keep
the things you will need for a good life.
1: A kettle. Tie the cord to her wrist, she should
never be out of its reach. 2: A snapshot of the woman
you wish you had married. Push it through her
eyes, put it in her head. 3: A pen knife. Good
for cutting bread, package strings, the ring
from her finger. 4: Coins. They will make sounds
so you know when she’s coming. 5: Silence.
Do not read the letters she writes you, do not
speak even if she pleads. 6: Cotton wool. To stop
the flow. Because she will bleed. 7: A book.
One heavy hardback you never intend to read.
8: A skeleton key. Trust her. She won’t use it to get out.

Brandel is an associate professor of English in Ivy Tech’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She has worked at Ivy Tech for eight years and currently teaches classes in English composition and creative writing. She is the advisor of the campus pride student club and a member of the global studies committee. Brandel’s work has recently appeared in Callisto, Public Pool, Under the Rader, Blue Fifth Review, and The Fem. She also writes a column on comedy for PopMatters and rights the world’s wrongs via her character Agatha Whitt-Wellington (Miss) at Everyone Needs An Algonquin. More of her work can be found at clbwrites.com.

Copies of Brandel’s collection will be available for purchase at www.brainmillpress.com.

For information about Ivy Tech Community College’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, visit ivytech.edu/liberal-arts.