HAPPY NEWS:
Flash fiction story, “Incident at Shady Acres,” was nominated by South 85 Journal for a Best of the Net 2025.
Collage art, “Found Sound,” was nominated by Raw Lit for a Best of the Net 2025.
Luanne’s hybrid memoir-in-flash, Scrap: Salvaging a Family, will be published by ELJ Editions in December 2026.
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Our Wolves is First Runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Award and was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize.
Our Wolves, Luanne Castle, Alien Buddha Press – In this bold recasting of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, a traumatic adventure unfolds, and the expectations one has for reality are shattered. An air of mystery pervades each poem, but beneath that mystery, worlds of forced silences exist. Some poems shock. Some poems awe. Some remind readers that the wolves one should fear most are not those roaming the forests.These poems also explore the myths and legends, symbolisms and mysticisms, which comprise the folk tales with which so many are familiar, and breathe new life into these well-worn tales. This retelling forms a narrative for a modern age.
Judges for Eric Hoffer Award
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The Dribble Drabble Review has nominated Luanne’s microfiction “History of Sacred Heart Catholic Church for Best Small Fictions 2024.
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“Incident at Shady Acres,” a flash fiction story by Luanne Castle placed as First Runnerup at the Julia Peterkin Literary Awards 2023.
You can find the story here: INCIDENT AT SHADY ACRES
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Listen to Luanne talk about how both of her parents fostered her creativity, family myths, children’s literature. And of course, listen to Luanne read some of her poems on Tea, Toast & Trivia: A Poet’s Voice.
I am very pleased to announce…
ROOTED AND WINGED is a Book Excellence Award winner!
NEW RELEASE: OUR WOLVES
Chapbook Published by Alien Buddha Press
For many years, I explored fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood stories from around the world, and taught them in my children’s literature class. Traditional literature, like folk and fairy tales, was one of my favorite topics of the course. I was particularly fascinated with the French and German (Perrault and Grimm) versions of Red Riding Hood and decided to address the subject in a poetic way.
I am happy to announce my newest poetry chapbook, Our Wolves (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Our Wolves looks at the identity of wolves in our everyday lives and the varied ways of viewing the wolf. For example, this character cannot be seen as merely bad or even redeemed or misunderstood, as in some interpretations of the fairy tale. Similarly, “Little Red” is not simply a victim or a representation of innocence. Instead, this collection reveals the tale as a conduit for many voices and interpretations of gender, identity, and feminism.
Read what others have said about the collection:
Poet Luanne Castle navigates the timeless story of “Little Red Riding Hood” in a compelling collection of sharp, memorable poetry. Our Wolves will haunt you long after you’ve returned from its woods.—Christine Butterworth-McDermott, author of The Spellbook of Fruit & Flowers
Castle’s wolves are not the wolves skulking in our imaginations. Her poems challenge our senses, bounce from view to view, shifting their focal points. Grandmothers and red-coat-wearing girls may or may not bear guilt. Indeed, Granny may be the Wolf. Or the Wolf may be a father, pulling down panties to slap bare skin. These poems don’t let go, no matter how you scratch; they’re unsettling, magical. Relentless. Unforgettable.—Robert Okaji, author of Buddha’s Not Talking
“Perhaps you were wrong.” In these imaginative and evocative poems, expectations are subverted, and flat, centuries-old characters are brought to life in both amusing and startling ways. These poems invite us to confront what we take for granted and then let loose our own inner wolf to bite in and savor them all–one well-crafted word at a time.—Kimberly K. Williams, author of Sometimes a Woman and Still Lives
New Publications in Literary Journals
Poem-a-Week at Sims Library of Poetry
Daily poem at Autumn Sky Poetry Daily
2 poems at The Book of Matches (pages 6 and 39)
Interviews in Literary Journals related to Rooted and Winged
Gingerbread House Lit Mag –Poem & Interview with Luanne
CutBank Literary Magazine – Millicent Borges Accardi Interviews Luanne
Interviews related to Our Wolves
Book Reviews of Our Wolves
Anthony Avina’s Blog – Book Review
The Book Lover’s Boudoir review
Blog Tour Interviews and Guest Posts related to Rooted and Winged
Review Tales – Interview with Luanne
Reviews of Rooted and Winged
Harbor Review review by Carla McGill. Read it here.
Anti-Heroin Chic review by Elizabeth Gauffreau. Read it here.
By Carol Bachofner. Read it here.
By Merril D. Smith. Read it here.
By Sheila Morris. Read it here.
By Jade Nicole Beals. Read it here.
By Serena Agusto-Cox. Read it here.
By Marie Bailey. Read it on Goodreads.
By Elaine Pinkerton. Read it here.
By Suanne Schafer. Read it here.
I am happy to announce the debut of my newest poetry collection Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
The poems of Luanne Castle’s Rooted and Winged are embedded in land and weather. “Bluegills snap up larvae in slivers of illusory light,” she writes early in the collection, hinting at the sensibilities of the companionable speaker who will usher us through the book.—Diane Seuss (2022, Pulitzer Prize for poetry)
Rooted and Winged is a fitting title for this collection of poems that plant themselves in reality but often hint at the surreal.–Karen Paul Holmes, author of No Such Thing as Distance.