In the Needle, A Woman: Winner of the 2024 Donna Wolf-Palacio Prize in Poetry

In the Needle, A Woman Susan Michele Coronel deftly weaves together strands of challenging life experiences, including the complexities of the mother-daughter bond, divorce, family losses, and her Jewish ancestors' traumatic past. Through captivating imagery and a lyrical imagination that accompanies us from childhood through adolescence and adulthood, In the Needle, A Woman culminates in the speaker's life as an independent woman with her own desires and needs. Through it all, the healing power of poetry helps her to mend the torn fabric of her life and to find purpose, creating a durable framework that bridges generations, traditions, and norms. In "Was My Mother the Ocean or a Rainstorm?" the speaker writes: "Pain nourishes me because it contains/seeds of goodness. I put on a blindfold/ & keep still. Now I don't need/ to choose. I am not afraid."