Not Everything Is Terrible

A mix of fairy tales, horror stories, and raw reflections of all stages of life, the poems in Amy Henry Robinson's collection "Not Everything Is Terrible" are at once visceral and beautiful, raw and gentle, spare and abundant. The title is taken from her poem "Not the Jasmine," which ends with the lines: "reminding me that not / everything is terrible" -- a perfect microcosmic distillation of the collection. Over and over again, Robinson's poems scrape away the surface of things to reveal the terrifying messiness beneath. But there are also countless moments of grace, of play, and of metatextuality which quietly insist that we remember the "not" in front of "everything is terrible."
Jennifer Hudak
Jennifer HudakHugo and Nebula-nominated writer of SFF
NOT EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE is a nostalgic and, at moments, fairytale-esque collection that brings readers on a walk through the path of life, touching on themes of coming of age, overcoming fear, craving youth, nature, the betrayal of the body and mind—raw and unrelenting in its melancholic beauty.
Ai Jiang
Ai JiangIgnyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula Award winner
In a world that so often feels terrible, Robinson has decidedly said Not Everything Is, and I wholeheartedly believe her. So much of me is reflected in the pages of this collection. Has she watched me live my life? My love? My grief and pain? It’s as if she’s peered into the tender moments that I suspected—and hoped—were universal; seeing them lived out on someone else’s pages so vividly gives the most intimate and wonderful sense of deja vu. Amy Henry Robinson could convince me of anything.
Jordan Hirsch
Jordan HirschRhysling and Dwarf Stars Award winning poet
Amy gut-punches me with words like no one else can. I know this, yet she still sneaks up on me--with a line, a word, and I'm undone. How dare she.
Clarke Doty
Clarke DotyCo-Owner & Editor Apparition Literary Magazine
Amy lets us into the true vulnerabilities of life - those moments where you wonder why the earth doesn't stop turning under the weight of grief and love together. Amy is a poet who experiences the world thoughtfully, but through that knows what to anticipate losing, from loved ones to power over one's own body, and the fear of that loss twines with the appreciation of living. Innocence then becomes something both to appreciate and to find humor in, perhaps the funniest thing in the world even as it is laced with sentimentality. Profoundly alienated from the world from the idea of her birth, and loving it fiercely despite that underlying sense of rejection, Amy carves an embrace from the earth and holds tight.
Maria SchraterPoetry Editor - Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Apparition Literary Magazine
The comfort of an old friend made new again in the vestiges of whimsical terrors, lost loves, chronic illness, and the mundanity of modern Americana.
Marie Baca VillaArtist and Writer
Filled with tiny moments and heavy ones, Not Everything is Terrible brings a wry and intimate humor to the beauty and the pain of life, spanning medical trauma, illness, love, and grief while also offering companionship. Ultimately, this is a collection that reminds us that every quiet moment matters, and that we are not alone in our grief, our pain, or our hope for healing and acceptance.
Tacoma TomilsonCo-Owner and Editor Apparition Literary Magazine
Not Everything is Terrible by Amy Henry Robinson is a study of what haunts us: age, mortality, injury, heartbreak, and the wee beasties that go bump in the night. This poetry collection places you in your body, lets you feel the chronic ache of memory and weight of the future. Amy’s words are a balm for aches you didn’t know you had, letting you know you are more than your pain or loss, that your joy is just as essential as your breath. These poems seize joy in the smallest moments, delicately holding your hand and telling you “Tomorrow is uncertain and/Hope is hard to find”
Rebecca BennettEditor Heartlines Magazine, Poet and Writer
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A little bit about this collection:
While there are some speculative elements, mostly hungry witches, this collection leans more towards observing all that life throws at you.
It flows through five sections; sharing Fear, navigating into Love, hyperventilating through illness, existential crisis, and family mythology while figuring out my Origins, struggling with survival through the chronic problems of mental and physical Health, Writing my way through the dark bits of all of it, and finally breathing an acceptance  into Nature and the universe.
My writing would appeal to those who enjoy the work of poets Danusha Laméris, Ron Koertge, Joy Harjo, and Mary Oliver.
It shows beauty in the mundane, the sacred in the simple stuff, and welcoming in the existential bullshit. My work acknowledges that getting knee-capped by chronic illness, and watching loved ones leave us, sucks, but also that squirrels still fuck about and birds still defy gravity. And watching them do those things, during a peachy-tinted sunset, fills our souls back up so we can tolerate the nonsense of life. Because –

Not Everything is Terrible.

There are also four poems about witches and two about horror movies.

Amy Henry Robinson is an editor and writer of speculative fiction and poetry. She is also an AWA certified writing workshop facilitator.