Poetry Shop 5: Therese Gleason on the Poetry of Pain, Migraines & Inspiration

By Katie Kemple February 17, 2026

I first became acquainted with Therese Gleason through her chapbook Hemicrania (Chestnut Review, 2024) a deeply researched collection of poems about migraine, which references centuries of text—from saints and song writers, to 1930s ads and current day pharma questionnaires.

As a migraine sufferer, I found the book captivating and utterly unique. It includes a range of poetic forms: an erasure of The Migraine Disability Assessment Test, a “Migraine Abecedarian” and visual poems incorporating an MRI scan and urgent care assessment. The poem “Aura”—which replicates the visual experience of the pre-migraine phenomenon—was accurate to the point that even glancing at the image made me anxious. These poems are well-crafted, inventive, and provide a window into an often misunderstood affliction.

Hemicrania won the 2025 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize from the New England Poetry Club, judged by Matthew E. Henry. You can read more about Hemicrania in a Q&A on Chestnut Review. We’re pleased to offer Hemicrania on The Poetry Shop.

Welcome to the Poetry Shop 5 Therese Gleason! We always start by asking writers for their gateway poet —the author who first sparked your interest in poetry.

Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson. I read Ariel in an undergraduate poetry class taught by one of my favorite professors at the University of Kentucky, Jane Gentry Vance, a poet herself, with whom I also studied The Odyssey and read Sappho’s fragments. From the first page of Plath’s collection–“Love set you going like a fat gold watch” (“Morning Song”)–I was entranced by the metaphor, the music, how the three monosyllables at the end of the first line suggested the way the “midwife slapped” the baby’s “footsoles.” I hadn’t realized language could do that in such a visceral way. Plath’s surreal and strange imagery, the audacity of her voice and truth-telling in “The Applicant” and other poems similarly thrilled me. This was nearly 30 years ago, and I was recently out of high school, during which I had been assigned poems by Poe and Blake to memorize and recite (a formative experience I also treasure), but had not really been exposed to contemporary poetry. Basically, reading Plath made me feel as if the top of my head were coming off, to paraphrase another of my gateway poets, Emily Dickinson.

Which poetry book are you currently reading?

I’m reading Hypermobilities (2021) by Ellen Samuels, a verse-memoir in haiku. This lyrical, innovative, compressed–and beautiful–collection describes Samuels’ experience living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a genetic connective tissue disorder (with varying subtypes, symptoms and severity) that can affect every system in the body, causing chronic pain, illness, and disability. Samuels, who is not only a poet but also a disability studies scholar, includes a generous notes section following her haiku, as well as a conversation with her publisher, in which she is asked what would be a “best possible outcome” of her book being in the world. She responds, in part, “I have this dream that some people with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome will read this book and find that it speaks to their experience, that it makes them feel less alone.” I felt similarly when I published Hemicrania, hoping it would find its way into the hands of others who live with migraine. And, as someone recently diagnosed with the hypermobile form of Ehlers-Danlos (which might explain in part the severity/chronicity of my migraine disease), I want Ellen Samuels to know that her book found me, and that I am full of gratitude to her, for the beautiful ethos of care I find in the disability and chronic illness community, and for art, which fosters connection, support, and solace in so many ways.

Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?

I love The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux. I had the great good fortune to study with Dorianne in my MFA program at Pacific University, so I'm biased. But what I really love is how down to earth, grounded, and actionable the advice and exercises in this book are. The descriptions of elements of poetic craft are some of the clearest, most concise and eloquent out there: I used excerpts from this book in an introductory poetry writing workshop I taught at the college level and found them excellent for not only beginning writers but also for writers of varying experience, such as myself, to come back to for refreshers and inspiration. I also love the tone of the book; Addonizio and Laux are two of my favorite poets for their plain-spoken, no-frills, brilliant and beautiful language and insights.

I look forward to digging into Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux, which I got as a gift over the holidays.

Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?

Elizabeth Sylvia, whose second full-length collection, Scythe, is forthcoming in February from River River Books. Elizabeth is the kind of poet, and person, who gets it in her head to read all of Shakespeare’s plays in a year, and then writes a brilliant book of poems entitled None But Witches: Poems on Shakespeare’s Women (2022), winner of the Three Mile Harbor Prize. Now she’s turned her formidable intellect and imagination to another project with historical dimensions that tentacle into our present. Scythe, in which she reimagines the tragicomic figure of Marie Antoinette and contemplates the ravages of colonialism and environmental degradation, past and present, in her own, our own, backyard. She also recently published a chapbook with Ballerini Book Press, My Little Book of Domestic Anxieties, a standout read exploring womanhood, motherhood, the garden, and the (unsettling) nature of setting down roots in middle age, all things I can relate to.

Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?

And After All, by Rhina P. Espaillat, published by Able Muse Press (2018). Rhina Espaillat is a hero of mine, a poet I find deeply inspiring and sustaining on a personal level and artistic level. Born in the Dominican Republic, Rhina and her family came to the U.S. when she was a young child. She published her first book at age 60, after raising three children and working as a public school teacher. Now 94, she has written over a dozen collections. She maintains an active role as a mentor and friend to many, many poets and translators. She possesses extraordinary formal dexterity in both English and Spanish (and writes poetry and essays in both languages) and her work beautifully illuminates the everyday, especially the domestic sphere, which she treats with gentle subversion and sharp intelligence, while also evoking the richness (and complexity) of her multilingual, multicultural identity: one of her most well-known, frequently anthologized poems on this theme is “Bilingual/Bilingüe.” And After All showcases all of these qualities in an elegiac collection of poems full of the wisdom of a long life lived richly and generously, replete with empathy, wry wit, and her trademark formal flourishes—many of the poems are whipped up with an array of seemingly effortless and graceful meter and rhyme schemes. I believe Rhina is an essential voice and a national treasure, and I recommend every one of her books.

About Therese Gleason

Therese Gleason’s (she/her/hers) is the author of Hemicrania (Chestnut Review, 2024) winner of the 2025 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize from the New England Poetry Club, judged by Matthew E. Henry; Matrilineal (Finishing Line, 2021), honorable mention, 2022 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize; and Libation (2006), co-winner, South Carolina Poetry Initiative Chapbook Competition, judged by Kwame Dawes. Her poetry, flash, and essays appear in 32 Poems, Cincinnati Review, Indiana Review, Lunch Ticket–Amuse Bouche, New Ohio Review, On the Seawall, Pithead Chapel, Rattle–Poets Respond, Spillway, and elsewhere. She was one of five finalists for the 2024 Codhill Press Guest Editor Series, a semifinalist for the 2023 Airlie Book Prize, and a finalist for the 2022 Wolfson Press Chapbook Contest. She has received Pushcart nominations for poetry and essay, and Best-of-the-Net nominations for poetry and fiction, and she made the 2025 longlist for the Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. Therese has taught English composition, ESL, and creative writing at the college level, and Spanish and reading in grades K-8. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, she has lived in Madrid, Spain; Washington, DC, and Columbia, SC. She currently resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. She has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University. To read more, visit: theresegleason.com. Follow her on Instagram at @theresegcarr.