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BIRDS OF THUNDER by Jessica D Thompson

Accents Publishing is proud to present BIRDS OF THUNDER by Jessica D Thompson, a collection of poems about survival, transformation, and the hard-won freedom of becoming fully oneself. Moving through girlhood and womanhood, violence and grief, love and loss, Thompson turns again and again to the natural world—birds, rivers, trees, light—as a source of wisdom, refuge, and renewal. Fierce yet tender, Birds of Thunder is ultimately a book about finding one’s voice and discovering, after all that has been endured, the courage to rise.

Women populate the pages of Jessica D. Thompson’s Birds of Thunder—hurt women, lost women, brave women, and one woman, the poet herself, with the strength and compassion to hold them all, along with frost flowers, sycamores, a kettle of vultures, and “ghost horses with red manes.” Birds of Thunder picks you up by the scruff of the neck and will not let go.
— Pauletta Hansel, Cincinnati Poet Laureate emerita; author of Understory: A Women’s History of Appalachia

Jessica D. Thompson’s Birds of Thunder emerges from the shadows of domestic violence into the sanctuary of a woman discovering her agency. “Summon the crown fashioned from clover,” urges the speaker on this lyrical journey of insight, rendered with tenderness and precision. This poet conjures both the darkness of human nature, “… that which stirs beneath / the blunt blade of a shovel,” and the spirit of resilience, “… her heart ablaze, her laughter a bonfire.” Thompson is a poet of witness, one who sees transcendence in soaring vultures, carnival glass, prayer wheels, and a woman’s strength. Like the night heron, “we dive into the sea-tangled wrack weed, / searching for something lost.” With this poet as a guide, we willingly search.
— Ellen Austin-Li, author of Incidental Pollen, runner-up to Madville Publishing’s Arthur Smith Poetry Prize

The poems in Birds of Thunder paint the ancient danger of being a girl and a woman, and the recipient of men’s desires and angers. They paint loss and grief, recalibrating and starting over. They paint love. Full of intricate images and specificity, the poems connect us to the intersection where human, natural, and divine influence each other, and where time seems a closed book with the past, present, and future all singing at the same time.
— Melissa Jørgenrud Helton, author of A Middle-Aged Woman Rages

A sample poem and ordering information are at this link.

“I’m Not From Around Here”

Accents Publishing’s founder and senior editor was interviewed by David Miller for Eastern Standard’s series “I’m Not From Around Here.” Give it a listen if you are curious and you have 13 free minutes.


https://esweku.org/track/5029014/october-15-2026_david-miller-katerina-stoykova

Elizabeth Marro interviews Andrew Merton about his new Accents Publishing book

“In one way or another I have been an entertainer for most of my life. In college I played bass guitar in a rock band; then, for 43 years as a teacher of writing in a college classroom, I knew that entertainment was part of the deal. Much of my writing, including this book, was meant to be entertaining. This does not mean that readers need to share all my views to enjoy the book.

It deals with a lot of serious stuff. But most of the stories are spiced with humor. My voice is edgy, often self-deprecating, often (I hope) funny. If Kurt Vonnegut and Nora Ephron had had a son, I like to think he would have written the way I do.”

Elizabeth Marro interviews Andrew Merton about his new Accents Publishing book, Gloria Steinem Blurbed Me And Other Miracles: An Autobiography in Prose and Poetry

https://elizabethmarro.substack.com/p/write-what-you-know-or-write-what

Unsilencing: Using Poetry to Set the Record Straight with Melissa Jørgenrud Helton!

Unsilencing: Using Poetry to Set the Record Straight with Melissa Jørgenrud Helton!

Online – Wednesdays, Aug 12- Sep 16 6:00-8:00pm EST

Six weeks

$275

In this class, we will look at ways poetry can be used to ask the things we were told we should ignore, bring forth the truths we were told to hide, and open our voices to sing and shout and say all the things we have been hesitant to. To help clear our throats, we will read poets who dared to be honest and then we’ll take our turn unsilencing ourselves by generating new work in a safe and supportive environment. We will look at form and craft and discuss the potential peril and liberation of publishing honest work.

Melissa Jørgenrud Helton is the author of A Middle-Aged Woman Rages(Accents Publishing, 2026). She serves as the Literary Arts Director of Hindman Settlement School, a cultural nonprofit in Knott County, Kentucky. She is editor of the anthology Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky) and Untelling, the literary and arts magazine of Hindman Settlement School.

Register at this link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/l8UJJZ7gRNa6SBXmJRyOsA

A new poetry book by Eric Scott Sutherland!

Accents Publishing is proud to bring to you a new poetry book by Eric Scott Sutherland!

Awkward Scrapes is a collection of poems that celebrates love, family, fatherhood, and the natural world while confronting grief, violence, memory, and healing. Rooted in Appalachia and Kentucky landscapes, Eric Scott Sutherland’s lyrical, music-infused poems seek beauty, tenderness, and hope amid the awkward scrapes of being human.

What Others Say About Awkward Scrapes

Awkward Scrapes is its own equinox. Distributing love evenly. Ascribing “sacred” status to domesticity, centering fatherhood, and appreciating the beauty in everything that lives between the coral and the trees … what higher, more honest work could a poet ever do?
—Frank X Walker, Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2013–15

“The cycle of pain is forever—” but there are places “where tender things are named,” and in that naming—even in our current “unholy country”— Eric Scott Sutherland finds a commitment to annotating and preserving family, place, and the rhythms of the natural world. “I am fierce / in my defense / of home” the poet declares, and his defense is making for us the most memorable “lyrical tapestries.” Awkward Scrapes is an arresting poetry driven by the poet’s signature short-lines, favorite music, sonic play, spoken-word energy, and a dogged search for inspiration and joy.
—Marianne Worthington, author of The Girl Singer

The poems in Awkward Scrapes are the best kinds of love songs, never sentimental and always powerful. They are meditations on romantic love, on the profound connections we have with our children and the natural world, even on life itself. This book is a celebration of all that makes us human: the awfulness and the beauty, sometimes tangled. Sutherland is one of my favorite poets and I loved every carefully chosen yet organic word.
—Silas House, Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2023–25

To read a sample poem or to order the book, visit the book’s page on the Accents’ website.

Results From Accents Publishing’s 2025 Open Reading Period

Dear writers, readers, supporters, and friends of Accents Publishing,

We are happy to announce the results of our 2025 Open Reading Period.

The following books have been selected for publication during the remainder of 2026 and throughout 2027. We look forward to bringing each of these outstanding books into the world and to working closely with these talented authors.

Please join us in congratulating them.

We were humbled by the large number of high-quality manuscripts we received. The selection process took longer than expected, and we had to make a number of very difficult decisions, but we feel we selected the titles that most closely reflect where Accents Publishing hopes to grow and evolve over the next eighteen months.

We deeply appreciate everyone who submitted work to us. Thank you for trusting us with your writing, and we sincerely hope to have the opportunity to read your work again in the future.

With appreciation,

Katerina Stoykova
and the team at Accents Publishing

The Double-Souled Son, a novel by Mary Louise Hill 

Languages of Birds, a short story collection by Geraldine Ann Marshall
The Water Collection, a short story collection by Bill Carman

True Bias, essays and sketches by Melita Schaum

Alert the Oracle, poetry by Tabitha Dial
Alien Mother, poetry by Kristina Erny
Animals, poetry by Rumen Pavlov
Birds of Thunder, poetry by Jessica D. Thompson
Catching a Ride in the Gizzard of a Bird, poetry by Sujata Lakhe
Flotilla: A Family Memoir in Verse, poetry by Melissa Jørgenrud Helton
From Field to Fable, poetry by Richard Taylor
My Father, the Water Bird, poetry by Sean Corbin
My Life as a Cricket, poetry by Linda Bryant Davis
Neighborhood Watch, poetry by Bill Brymer
Orchestra of Belonging, poetry by Marianne Peel
Orfeito, poetry by Ricardo Nazario y Colón
Places You Must Not Go, poetry by Flora K. Schildknecht
Stare on Paper, poetry by Stuart Horodner
Tendril, poetry by Amy Le Ann Richardson
This Set Down / This, poetry by Libby Falk Jones
Think. Pray. God, poetry by Wendy Jett
Your Curious Guidebook to Climate Change, poetry by Vivian Faith Prescott

A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN RAGES by Melissa Helton

Accents Publishing is proud to announce that Melissa Helton’s first full-length poetry collection, A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN RAGES is set to release on 5/15, exactly a month from now.
We believe that you will love this book and its powerful messages delivered with exemplary poetic craft! Preorder info to follow.

With fierce energy and a creative use of poetic styles, these poems collaborate as an affirmation against the evils women face and as an entreaty to “thrive in flux,” to pay “deliberate, unceasing attention” to everything in the world, “as if it were holy.”
—Marianne Worthington, author of The Girl Singer

Through these poems, I come to understand the middle-aged woman raging as a community spiritual worker…. These poems are fearless and yet they understand the importance of
acknowledging our fears and telling what we must tell to survive.
—Joy Priest, author of Horsepower

Her passion & artistry left me awed, energized, & ready to write. What more could you want?
—George Ella Lyon, author of Back to the Light: Poems
Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015 – 2016

Katerina Stoykova to Teach at Tupelo Quarterly

Accents Publishing founder and senior editor Katerina Stoykova will teach a three-hour workshop at Tupelo Quarterly as part of their Spring Series Workshops. More info here.

Workshop Description

You have accumulated a stack of poems, so what’s next? How do you go about arranging your material into a book? Should you work towards a chapbook or a full-length collection? What could be a manageable, non intimidating place to get started? What is the best way to organize the work? Should you break it into sections or shape it into one continuous flow? How can you recognize a good title for a collection? What are the main architectural elements of a book? How to keep sane and motivated throughout all this? Poet/Editor/Publisher Katerina Stoykova will discuss best practices on these and give tips to keep the process manageable and fun.

Meet Your Instructor

A Bulgarian by birth, Katerina Stoykova is a bilingual poet living in Kentucky and is the author of Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky, 2024) and The Poet’s Guide to Publishing: How to Conceive, Arrange, Edit, Publish and Market a Book of Poetry (McFarland, 2024). Katerina is the founder and senior editor of Accents Publishing, as well as the creator of the Accents podcast on WUKY. Katerina serves as the 2025-2026 President of the Kentucky State Poetry Society. 

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