{"title":"Poetry by Courtney LeBlanc","description":"\u003cp\u003eCourtney LeBlanc is a poet, editor, and publisher based in Arlington, Virginia. Her poetry addresses grief, friendship, the body, and survival with candor and emotional directness. She is the author of four full-length collections: \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/beautiful-full-of-monsters-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback?_pos=3\u0026amp;amp;_sid=7f2bf0c7b\u0026amp;amp;_ss=r\"\u003eBeautiful and Full of Monsters\u003c\/a\u003e (VA Press, 2020), \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/exquisite-bloody-beating-heart-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback?_pos=2\u0026amp;amp;_sid=7f2bf0c7b\u0026amp;amp;_ss=r\"\u003eExquisite Bloody, Beating Heart\u003c\/a\u003e (Riot in Your Throat, 2021), \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/her-whole-bright-life-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback?_pos=4\u0026amp;amp;_sid=7f2bf0c7b\u0026amp;amp;_ss=r\"\u003eHer Whole Bright Life\u003c\/a\u003e (Write Bloody, 2023), winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize, and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/her-dark-everything-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback?_pos=1\u0026amp;amp;_sid=7f2bf0c7b\u0026amp;amp;_ss=r\"\u003eHer Dark Everything\u003c\/a\u003e (Riot in Your Throat, 2025). She served as the third Poet Laureate of Arlington County, Virginia from 2023 to 2025. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/riotinyourthroat.com\/\"\u003eRiot in Your Throat\u003c\/a\u003e, an independent poetry press, and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"her-whole-bright-life-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback","title":"Her Whole Bright Life - Poems by Courtney LeBlanc - Paperback","description":"\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003e Her Whole Bright Life \u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of poems that weave together the trauma and exhaustion of a life lived with disordered eating and the loss and grief of the death of the poet's father. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Love and hunger intertwine and become inseparable as the poet grapples to find, and listen, to both. With a distinct and feminist voice, this collection delves into a life now lived without a beloved parent, while trying to survive a pandemic and battling demons that have lived inside her for most of her life. \u003cbr\u003e With both fierceness and tenderness, we see a woman trying to find her place within her own body and within an ever-changing world. This collection of poems is both an elegy and an anthem - praising both those who've been lost and those who remain.","brand":"Courtney LeBlanc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44289012826154,"sku":"9781949342482","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/her-whole-bright-life-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback-9685371.jpg?v=1777252651"},{"product_id":"exquisite-bloody-beating-heart-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback","title":"Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart - Poems by Courtney LeBlanc - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis collection takes the reader on a journey through the injustices women face - in their careers, their daily lives, in the way they walk to their cars late at night; to smashing the patriarchy and claiming their rights over their bodies and their ideas; to a love better left remembered; to eventually finding a balance with a love that stands up and fights beside the poet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCourtney LeBlanc's Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart understands that the body \"is a war \/ zone,\" especially, the female body, which LeBlanc explores through the lens of fairy tales, the story of Eve, her own journey through girlhood, womanhood, destruction, rebirth, and self-discovery. Each word in each poem is as necessary and life-giving as a heartbeat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Shaindel Beers, author of Secure Your Own Mask,  Finalist for the Oregon Book Award\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn her latest collection, Courtney LeBlanc bravely and fiercely examines the burdens women carry, the societal pressures, the cultural expectations: \"the heavy world \/ digging into our shoulders and slumping our backs.\" In many of her poems, she takes back agency - that others tried to take away - and never lets us forget the pluck that endures: \"ready to bite\" and \"guns ablaze\" and \"I'm read \/ to burn\" and \"This body \/ is a weapon.\" This collection is one that never flinches from hard truths, always insist on strength by revealing vulnerability, and even in its exploration of our human darkness, offers flames of hope. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, author of Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExquisite Bloody, Beating Heart traces the path from snake to survival to highlight the complex and often conflicted experiences of womanhood. LeBlanc's voice, both skillfully intimate and starkly blunt, speaks in blood, beauty and burden to show the many hungers and rips in the framework of femininity. With a close examination of the body, from vibrators to \"belly gowls,\" this collection asks us to consider the dichotomy of punishment and pleasure. \"I did not have a map to the body\" LeBlanc writes and allows this collection to be its own cartography, a new country of strength where every woman can [grow] the fruit. [Be] the vine and the rain and the light. [Be] the dirt.\" This book is an anthem of urging and unlearning, reminding women to \"be the key to her own opening, her becoming.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Kelly Grace Thomas, author of Boat Burned\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Courtney LeBlanc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44289012891690,"sku":"9781736138618","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/exquisite-bloody-beating-heart-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback-8770453.jpg?v=1777252651"},{"product_id":"her-dark-everything-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback","title":"Her Dark Everything - Poems by Courtney LeBlanc - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003ePart elegy to a friend who died by suicide, part love poem to a friend who continues to survive, Her Dark Everything is a collection that will pull you through the darkest depths until you feel the light against your skin. It will make you grieve for those who have lost the battle against the beast that is depression while simultaneously making you grateful for those who stay and fight. In equal measures dark and light, soft and sharp, Her Dark Everything will roost in your heart permanently. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003eIf you blend radiance with darkness, hope with death then hope again, and tie them into a gorgeous friendship knot, you'll glimpse the brilliance of Courtney LeBlanc's \u003cem\u003eHer Dark Everything\u003c\/em\u003e. This collection, an elegy to her friend Paula and a love poem to her best friend Virginia, is nothing short of breathtaking. Few poets make me eagerly await their next book, but LeBlanc's edgy, funny, fierce, fearless, and engaging voice always delivers. LeBlanc's lines cut deep and resonate long after the page is turned: \u003cem\u003eI know 2 women who have died by suicide + the year isn't over \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e I'm trying to write about joy, trying \/ to find honey in the words, trying \/ to lick it from my fingertips and let \/ it be enough.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eHer Dark Everything\u003c\/em\u003e is a masterclass in balancing raw vulnerability with poignant celebration. This is a gorgeous and meaningful collection of poems that you won't be able to put down-and won't want to. \u003cem\u003eHer Dark Everything\u003c\/em\u003e is a testament to poetry's power to heal, transform, and find light and beauty even in the darkest times.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Kelli Russell Agodon, author of \u003cem\u003eDialogues with Rising Tides\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn her fourth, full-length poetry collection, \u003cem\u003eHer Dark Everything, \u003c\/em\u003eCourtney LeBlanc approaches grief, friendship \u0026amp; what it means to be human with tenderness and candor. These revelatory poems include experimental forms and traditional elegies, all characterized by universal, timeless questions about what it means to be human in a world that often annihilates us. \u003cem\u003eWhat if \u003c\/em\u003ewe had been able to save a friend lost to suicide? \u003cem\u003eWhat if\u003c\/em\u003e we \"demanded more\" of life? \u003cem\u003eWhat if\u003c\/em\u003e the pills went \"unswallowed?\" These poems confront loss and survival, yes-but they also ask us to consider whether we are making the most of our own lives in the time that we have-and if not, why not?\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Joan Kwon Glass, author of \u003cem\u003eDaughter of Three Gone Kingdoms\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eNight Swim\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHer Dark Everything is the masterful fourth collection Courtney LeBlanc brings to readers in a poignant exploration of grief and self-acceptance, weaving enormous loss with the broader theme of embracing one's inner darkness. LeBlanc's poetry captures the raw, visceral experience of mourning a friend gone tragically too soon, using everyday objects like poetry workshops and black nail polish, and moments as powerful symbols of memory, nostalgia, and emotion. Her language is both delicate and fierce, as she paints lyrical scenes for readers into the intimate process of grappling with sorrow and seeking brightness in the midst of despair. Courtney LeBlanc's collection is a testament to the power of poetry to heal and transform, and ultimately, provides the blueprint on hope. Bree Bailey, author of Wailing on Whisper Street\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Courtney LeBlanc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44289012957226,"sku":"9798988989868","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/her-dark-everything-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback-3076447.jpg?v=1777252651"},{"product_id":"beautiful-full-of-monsters-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback","title":"Beautiful \u0026 Full of Monsters - Poems by Courtney LeBlanc - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eLove isn't always pretty, yet most of us choose to remain constant in its pursuit. These poems unwrap the mythos of romance with the clairvoyance of a writer who knows the best and worst of relationships inside and out. LeBlanc dares to honestly show us how even when the best of intentions fail, we can always find beauty if we stay true to the monsters in ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Courtney LeBlanc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44289013022762,"sku":"9780578625959","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/beautiful-full-of-monsters-poems-by-courtney-leblanc-paperback-6788203.jpg?v=1777252651"}],"url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/collections\/poetry-by-courtney-leblanc.oembed","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}