I am so grateful to Amy, Elle, Joanna, Rohan, and Ashley for providing these beautiful blurbs for my new book, a place a feeling something he said to you. Please check out their blurbs, and then check out their work (links posted below).
Did you know that you can buy the book now from my publisher, Spooky Girlfriend Press? It’s only $8.00, and if you want to read the book but can’t afford the price, please email me and I’ll be happy to send you a PDF.
I’m currently planning some events for the book release and I’m really looking forward to being able to share this collection with you all. Stay tuned!
“Written in seamless second person, a place a feeling something he said to you is a stunningly real account of abuse rendered in vivid color, from the tall green trees in the guided meditation you improvise to soothe his violent rage to the red light that gives you the chance to jump out of his car. Alexandra Naughton has written a graceful, fearless, and regrettably relatable book about surviving an abusive relationship and finding power in telling your story.”
- Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points
”Alexandra Naughton's work articulates with clarity the paralyzing experience of being with manipulative men and the psychic space that is taken up by living with trauma. She works over each moment with a chisel, driving the reader further and further into her psyche as she seeks to understand her creative process and how to get back to a safe sense of self.”
- Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other
“This book is a warning. One that starts as a secret, evolves into a whisper, and ends in a blaring alarm that shatters us to our core. Recounting the horrors of finding oneself suffocating in an abusive relationship, Naughton devotes herself to regaining her narrator's agency. As she tries to write a clear path out, we find that it's never as easy as it seems. a place a feeling something he said to you devotes itself to narrative as a means to cleanse, heal and write oneself out of a nightmare. The effect is gut-wrenching in its vulnerability; livid in its vividness. a place, a feeling, something he said to you is a brave and timely work.”
- Ashley Obscura, author of Ambient Technology
“Alexandra Naughton carefully straps us into the back seat of a vehicle that she seems merely a passenger in. She asks us to bear witness. She leans over and says “this is definitely not poetry.” On full display is Naughton’s personal recollection, political awareness, and a spot-on, understated sense of humor as she describes her condition as a woman who may want to be left alone or who may yearn to be understood in her own timing and on her own terms. She shows us what it’s like to fall for a wounded creature who moans then looks up to see if he’s lured you in close enough to pounce and rob you for all you’ve got and all that you are. ‘He’s at your house smoking your weed and cancelling your weekend plans or he’s bringing you along somewhere with him… You answer his frantic text messages or you take his call after the fifth call or you turn your phone off because you’re with other people and you’re enjoying yourself.’ In a place a feeling something he said to you, Alexandra Naughton is as keen as they come; bringing to mind a legendary hip hop lyric, ‘I wish I could give you this feeling.’ Naughton certainly delivers that and much more.”
- Rohan DaCosta, fine artist and author of The Edge of Fruitvale
"Alexandra Naughton’s a place a feeling something he said to you is a resurrection. At first, it might feel like a burial - a burial of trauma and pain and loss, but really, it’s a resurrection of the self after trauma, after pain. This is a necessary read for anyone who lives and breathes right now. Naughton adeptly navigates our strange, fast-paced modern world with references to Nicki Minaj and San Francisco’s chaotic, stressful landscape while also allowing the speaker to be timeless and universal. This is a letter to yourself and everyone you know."
- Joanna C. Valente, author of Marys of the Sea and editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault