SAINT OF is a gilded exploration of hunger—the hunger for the erotic, the ancestral, the forbidden, divinity, and reclamation. With themes of grief, illness, and generational trauma woven alongside sensuality and beauty, this collection is both sacrament and defiance. It traces the contours of longing, ruin, and transformation, blurring the boundaries between the carnal and the celestial. These poems are not only an invocation of saints—they are a declaration of self.

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Select poems from SAINT OF
saint of salvage at Moria Magazine of Woodbury University
saint of pentralia at The Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester
saint of sepulture at Lover’s Eye Press
saint of orphaned girls at Eunoia Review
saint of precipice at Pink Disco
saint of the before times at Every Day Poems
SAINT OF on Goodreads

Feels for SAINT OF

“Basile’s characteristic lush and textured language shines in a collection in which poetic form mirrors poetic theme in a satisfying way. Read Saint Of and let the eternal summer drag you under—delicious and dark.” — Jezmina Von Thiele, Lover’s Eye Press

“Sophisticated turns of phrase depict a time much older than the hand that wrote them…Basile’s tendency towards darkness is freeing somehow, preparative in some way. For these things come to us all, and she articulates it with ease: ‘The maggots roosting in the hollow.’ Such deep sadness seems effortless. I respect that. The skill in her words is profound.” — Lisa Natasha Wetton, Everybody’s Reviewing

“Saint Of’s poems brim with a desire to be found, to belong, to be. Burning with a primal ache for love, one feels the quest for origin in piece after piece. Throughout the collection, that universal elusive question prevails: Who am I? It reads like a prayer, a haunting, but also a spell.” — Nicole Monaghan, Ovunque Siamo

“Each poem tells a story not of a saint but a life story, event, or remembrance. Using “saint of” for each title implies a sacredness to life, even when it’s difficult to see the sacred in something, like ruination or self-defeat. Nevertheless, Basile finds it, even in life’s gaps.” — Tweetspeak Poetry

“SAINT OF went for the jugular in terms of the very foundations through which so many of us see the world…This is a book about starting out in ruin and in want and playing by different rules to achieve wholeness. This is a book where ruin in fact becomes ‘the mother of wholeness,’ and where ‘Being good / isn't the only way to be good...’ A profoundly world-building and redemptive articulation, this collection renders transgression as an alchemical process.” — Kelly Egan, Goodreads

”Lisa Marie Basile’s writing has reckoned with mysticism, transcendence, and religious iconography over the years. Publisher White Stag describes Basile’s new book saint of as “a gilded exploration of hunger—the hunger for the erotic, the ancestral, the forbidden, divinity, and hope.” — Vol 1, Brooklyn, ‘Book of the Month’

“From the whispers of orphaned girls to the confessions of burdened lovers, the poems weave a rich tapestry of human connection and longing. This book reminds us that even in the depths of despair, there is beauty to be found, and that the human spirit is capable of enduring even the most profound sorrows.” — Trista Edwards, author of Spectral Evidence

Release date: February 1, 2025 | White Stag Publishing | 979—8—990872—45—5
Email lisambasile @ gmail.com for review queries.