My New Book is Finally Here
Beautiful and Brutal Things
My poetry collection Beautiful and Brutal Things is done. It's actually done and finally published over 270 pages.
Over a year of my life went into this book. More than a year, really. Long days at my computer, sometimes seven days a week because I couldn't stop even when I probably should have. Then two months of editing that felt harder than the writing itself. But it's finished, and I'm still standing, and the book is real.
I called it Beautiful and Brutal Things because that's what life is. Both at once, all the time. The good stuff and the hard stuff, happening side by side. All of it went into these poems.
There's grief in here. Love. Everyday stuff that maybe doesn't seem like much until you write it down and realize it was everything. Some poems that might lift you up when you need it. I just wrote what I needed to write, about life and what was true.
I don't really know what else to say except thank you. Thank you for reading poetry, for caring about it, for giving a damn about words on a page. That means more than you know to me.
I hope you find something in these poems that feels like words you want to say or do say. I encourage you to click on the link below to read a sample. Or even get your own copy. And please, if you will share this, I would be forever grateful to you. Thanks again for all of the support.
-Tim
About the Creator
Tim Carmichael
Tim is an Appalachian poet and cookbook author. He writes about rural life, family, and the places he grew up around. His poetry and essays have appeared in Beautiful and Brutal Things, his latest book.
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It's difficult for me to know where to start with a review of this book as it was, for me, an entirely unique experience and one that I'll probably never have again. I don't want that to be interpreted as unenjoyable but it has left me scratching my head a little and ruminating on its content, its themes and its characters.
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Comments (21)
wow
congrats top story
Wooohooooo congratulations on your Leaderboard placement! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
This is excellent news, Tim, and you can count on my support, as I will purchase a copy and leave a review. Poetry is my first love of writing, and I am currently working on my own book, which means a long road ahead. Congratulations on your top story and for making this week's leadership board!👏💙🥳
Well-wrought, friend! This will find its way to my bookshelf, and after the grid goes down, and the apocalypse is long over, whatever creatures inhabit this blasted earth will wonder how a world with such fine poets could have gone so terribly wrong! All joking aside, a copy is on the way!
Congrats, Tim!!
how incredibly exciting, Tim. Kudos and congratulations on sticking with it. I hope to get my own copy soon
That line about the editing being harder than the writing hit me—I’ve felt that strange exhaustion where the thing you loved making suddenly asks more of you than you think you have left. Calling the book Beautiful and Brutal Things feels honest in a way that doesn’t try to soften anything, like you’re letting both parts sit in the same room without apologizing. It made me wonder, now that it’s finished and out in the world, is there a particular poem that feels like it cost you the most to write—or one you’re a little scared to let readers meet?
Congratulations, Tim! This looks like a great book from the sample and I bought a Kindle version of it. Will write a review later.
Congratulations to you!! I read your sample and it's simply lovely! I love the art you've included! Wishing you so many good things on this journey and I will buy a copy when I am able!
Congratulations!
YAY! Congratulations Tim! 🥳
That's so exciting, Tim! Congrats on this big achievement! I really love the title and why you chose it.
Amazing Accomplishment!
Back to say congrats on Top Story!
Hey! Congratulations, Tim! How does it feel?
Congratulations! That's awesome news :-)
Congratulations Tim. This is exciting and I’m sure a little surreal. I’m off to Amazon.
I am still working on my second self-published collection so know how hard it is. Rewarding, trying, stressful and hard and when you get the other side of all that it's brilliant so well done and congrats. I have no clue at the moment when I'll get it but will definitely get it and have it pride of place on one of my bookshelves. Well done Tim
Congrats Tim! No small accomplishment
Congratulations!! What’s your ISBN? Looking forward to curling up with it on a rainy day.