The Place of Broken Things

Bram Stoker Award® winners Linda D. Addison and Alessandro Manzetti use their unique voices to create a dark, surrealistic poetry collection exploring the many ways shattered bodies, minds, and souls endure. 

They created poems of visionary imagery encompassing death, gods, goddesses and shadowy, Kafkaesque futures by inspiring each other, along with inspiration from others (Allen Ginsberg, Pablo Neruda, Phillis Wheatley, etc.).

Construction of The Place started with the first bitten apple dropped in the Garden. The foundation defined by the crushed, forgotten, and rejected. Filled with timeless space, its walls weep with the blood of brutality, the tears of the innocent, and predatory desire. Enter and let it whisper dark secrets to you.

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

Interview with the poets:

What makes this poetry collection so special?
Alessandro: Collaborations are the salt of poetry, can create special, unique blends and flavours. This book is exquisite, in that way.
Linda: Collaborations can create remarkable work, whether it’s poetry or fiction. Alessandro and I each did a third on our own and then a third together. This book was written with us in completely different time zones (Arizona & Italy), without ego and is the best poetry I’ve created so far.

Tell us more about the theme of this book.
Linda: There was no hard rules, we agreed to riff off any of the words in the title: Place; Broken; Thing(s). The real magic is how the book flowed from us, as we allowed our imagination freedom to play, trusting the dark, surrealistic tales told would fit; and they did!
Alessandro: Imagine a collage of different places, connected by invisible wires. We play the role of the explorers of that elusive, borderlands world.

Why should readers give this book or your work a try?
Linda: Our book has unique songs to offer, something we couldn’t recreate separately. It stands alone with any work we do in the future because even the poems I wrote by myself were influenced by working in our shared arena in undefinable ways.
Alessandro: If you're a curious traveler, ready to walk with us along a trail without markers, this is a good book for you.

“Addison and Manzetti appear, here, as a songwriting team, certain tunes attributed to one, then the other, but regularly meeting, so that not only do we get to know where each great poet is coming from, but their electric union to boot. At turns gritty and aqueous, this book is totally alive. Addison and Manzetti have written a volume in which literally every line is worthy of being that book’s title.”—Josh Malerman, author of BIRD BOX

“There is no book of poetry quite like THE PLACE OF BROKEN THINGS! Linda Addison and Alessandro Manzetti spin dark magic! Highly recommended!”—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of V-WARS and GLIMPSE

“Addison and Manzetti have teamed up to create a dazzling array of images, ideas, and emotions. When flying solo through the pages, their voices are distinct, knee deep in bravura and style. And yet, their collaborations are seamless. Powerful stuff, indeed. You will find yourself re-visiting the pieces in this book, each time discovering something new.”—Thomas Monteleone