Verdant Publishing author Joellen Sweeney and friend of TVP Brittney Corrigan will be sharing their poetry at Broadway Books in Portland, OR.
Joellen will read from her recently published debut collection, The Small Particulars, and Brittney will read from her most recent collection, Solastalgia.
In her debut poetry collection, The Small Particulars, Joellen Sweeney invites readers to pause, look closer, and rediscover the overlooked wonders that shape a life. With language both tender and unflinching, these poems traverse memory, love, fear, grief, and resilience, reminding us that even the smallest moments hold infinite universes. From childhood encounters with fairy letters, to meditations on wildfire, anxiety, and the multiverse of human connection, Sweeney writes with a clarity that is both intimate and expansive. Each poem becomes a loop of string laid gently around the overlooked, illuminating how the details we nearly miss can transform into landscapes of meaning.
Grounded in the natural world yet alive to the complexities of contemporary life, The Small Particulars resonates with anyone who has ever found solace in the forest, traced the arc of a falling star, or searched for beauty in the midst of uncertainty.
Joellen Sweeney is a writer, theatre maker, and teaching artist from Portland, Oregon. Her creative research focuses on environment; whether through whimsical, heartfelt writings, immersive and site-specific performance, or lush multi-layered vocal music, Joellen loves to create and support experiences that build connectedness between people and the natural world. Her debut poetry collection The Small Particulars was published in December 2025 by Verdant Publishing.
Solastalgia is a dazzling collection of poems about climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene Age. Recalling Joni Mitchell's famous lyric "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot," Solastalgia is a heart-wrenching and harrowing overview of environmental destruction. Though it is an ominous exploration of the Anthropocene era and the ways humans have contributed to the changing climate and landscape, it spends much of its time honoring all the strange and wondrous creatures-"may you outlast us"- that humans, both intentionally and unwittingly, are shoving toward extinction's cliff. Solastalgia is an eloquent tribute to all the awe-inspiring flora and fauna that we have failed as a species. Using language as the tool to effect change, these poems make you want to be better, do better.
Brittney Corrigan is the author of the poetry collections Daughters, Breaking, Navigation, 40 Weeks, and Solastalgia. Brittney’s debut short story collection, The Ghost Town Collectives, won the 2023 Osprey Award for Fiction from Middle Creek Publishing. Brittney is the recipient of a 2025 Oregon Literary Fellowship and a former editor with Airlie Press. She was raised in Colorado and has lived in Portland, Oregon for over three decades, where she is an event planner at her alma mater, Reed College.