SHB Poetry Award Winner

Serving House Books welcomes Virginia LeBaron into its roster of authors as the recipient of the SHB Poetry Award! This award has transitioned over from the sister press Broken Tribe, where it ran for a number of years. Virginia’s poetry collection, Care, a reckoning, will arrive in fall 2027. Care, a reckoning, is a collection of compelling, contemporary, narrative poems written by a nurse. With equal measure tenderness, humor, and grit, the poems explore the multiple dimensions of receiving and giving care – personally and professionally – and how this can both delight and haunt us. The collection is organized into four sections reflecting the historical etymology of "care": care as sorrow; care as preservation; care as indifference; and care as attachment. The arc of the collection is one of hope and healing as the speaker confronts the darker elements of ‘care’ to ultimately gain a clearer understanding of what it means to love and be loved.