Deer, Silent and Open-Eyed, by Beetle Samuel Rooke-Dutton

my new name has nothing save for
vowels or the sound you get when
your jaw unclenches

Beetle Samuel Rooke-Dutton’s debut poetry collection, Deer, Silent and Open-Eyed, is both a tender and visceral reflection on natural decomposition and his experiences growing up as a trans guy in southern Maine. Through metaphors relating to fish, insects, fruit, and roadkill, the collection conveys themes of violence, connection, joy, and resilience. Exploring topics ranging from the sharpness of razor clamshells to the look of deer sleeping on the sides of highways in the dark of morning, he captures the essence of humanity through the eye of a boy lying still on a dirt road.

Beetle Samuel Rooke-Dutton (he/him/his) is a trans guy from California who currently lives in a beach town in southern Maine. Deer, Silent and Open-Eyed is his first published collection of poetry, though he has been writing for over ten years. When not writing, Beetle is active in Maine’s queer youth community, running workshops that work to create safe spaces and improve the accessibility of communities. He also enjoys linguistics, photography, and the outdoors, especially when hiking or on bike trips. Though Beetle plans to eventually move away, Maine is his home, and he is forever grateful for the community he has gained because of that.

Factory Town, by Ramona Rowe

“We’re machines, kiddo. Humans can go to rusting therapy, or drink coffee, or get dogs. The best thing we can hope for is better data storage.” 

Jordie lives a normal life: an android stealing from the human world for a secret underground factory, observing the eccentric friends with whom he shares a hive mind. Everything changes when his team encounters Tien, a rogue android secretly bargaining with aliens for a new world order. A runaway now living as a wealthy human in Worcester, Massachusetts, Tien is a threat to the factory and its inhabitants. Sent after him, Jordie is faced with uncomfortable truths about connection, isolation, and coffee with pepper. Factory Town, with its cast of lovable androids, turns a winking eye on humanity, with humor, dark honesty, and gloriously obscure references.

Ramona Rowe is a junior at Portland High School with a love of bad sci-fi, ridiculous fantasy, and her irritating cats.  When not writing, she’s drawing supervillains and space aliens or scrolling through Wikipedia to learn everything about everything.  Or if not everything, electrolarynxes, Star Wars, and Providence, Rhode Island. Factory Town is based on her love of science fiction and her family experiences in Worcester (which have always included less explosions and more Vietnamese food).

Candle on the Tree, by Sophia Tyutyunnyk

At nine years old, it is hard to understand the news that you might not ever go back home. 

In this tender and observant coming-of-age memoir, an American daughter of Ukrainian  immigrants, Sophia Tyutyunnyk, writes about the anxious and formative months she spent living in Ukraine during the final stages of her family’s path to legal residency in the United States. Named for the chestnut flower that is a symbol of Kyiv, Candle on the Tree takes the reader on a journey through loss, homesickness, realization, and resilience  as Tyutyunnyk discovers the motherland of her parents. But even as the shy nine-year old from small-town Maine finds deep roots in Ukraine, she copes with the agonizing  uncertainty of being uprooted.  

What if Sophia has to return to America without her parents? Can she belong in Ukraine?  Is the girl on the marshrutka in Kyiv the same person as the one who left her fourth-grade life  in America?  

Against the backdrop of a war that has been raging for years, Tyutyunnyk introduces the reader to the resilient and creative people of Ukraine and the culturally rich tapestry of the country’s capital city.  

Sophia Tyutyunnyk wrote Candle on the Tree as a sophomore at Orono High School in Orono, Maine. Her coming-of-age memoir is about accompanying her parents to Kyiv, Ukraine, as they finalized their journey to legal permanent residency in the United States. In 2023, Sophia won The Telling Room's Writing Contest for Penobscot County. Other than writing, Sophia enjoys playing soccer, swimming competitively, listening to music, and traveling with her family. In the future, Sophia hopes to go into STEM and write more books. 

Clearing Out the Fridge, by Ruby Van Dyk

We smiled at each other, 
knowing hunger would surpass desire 
for perfection. 

In her debut poetry collection, Ruby Van Dyk dedicates space for introspection, anger, and cravings. Clearing Out the Fridge asks what food means to all of us. Traveling through warm kitchens, malodorous grocery stores, and the mind of a grieving teenage girl, it examines the systems on which we are all reliant. Traversing love of her grandmother, the silliness of a young cousin, and the uncertainty of a world overrun with microplastics and greed, poetry serves as the base for a greater message.

Ruby Van Dyk is a poet from many places, including North Carolina, Singapore, and Maine.  She wrote her debut poetry collection Clearing Out the Fridge through The Telling Room’s Young Emerging Authors fellowship. A recent graduate of Casco Bay High School, she is attending Stanford University to study sustainability and policy. She is deeply invested in the future of our food system and our climate, and hopes to help in working toward a solution. In her free time she likes to take long walks, cook without recipes, and watch movies at her local theater.