Before OnStar presents daily life in the de-industrialized Midwest and creates a powerful sense of place and character. The poems in this collection are filled with humanity, humor, honesty, and grace.

Sarah Carson was born and raised in Flint, Michigan but currently lives in Chicago where she is an editor at the award-winning journal RHINO and the Communications Specialist at Switchback Books. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from National University and is also the author of several books on screenwriting for children.

Bright, Burning Fuse a chapbook by Melanie Faith deals with the conflict of living a conventional life and wishing to run free. At moments, it aches for freedom, at others, it wishes to be confined, but through it all, it asks if there is a compromise. These poems are examinations of the results of cataclysmic and common events that inhibit and spark desires for our entire lives.

MELANIE FAITH holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, NC (2007). She was featured reader in Wilson College’s 2005 Visiting Writers Series and received the 2006 Outstanding Young Alumnae Award. Her poetry and photography recently appeared in The Binnacle (University of Maine), Emprise Review, Heavyglow, Six Little Things, Mo: Writings From The River (Montana State University), and more. Her instructional article about creative writing critique groups was published in The Writer magazine (November 2009). Her poetry chapbook, Bright Burning Fuse, was also a finalist in the 2008 Keyhole Magazine Chapbook contest, in December 2008. The opening poem from the collection (along with landscape photos taken by the author) is featured in the online literary magazine, Shape of a Box by Folded Word Press, http://www.youtube.com/shapeofabox. For more information, or to order a copy, contact the author at writer@pa.net. She lives and writes in rural Pennsylvania, where she educates young minds as an English, history, and SAT tutor at a college preparatory high school.