Burning the Ghost Light - by Caitlin Conlon (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"We all have a stage, but what happens when the lights go out?" -- A poetic exploration of the masks we wear, and the truth that lies beneath.

Burning The Ghost Light is a striking new poetry collection that invites readers into a world where theater and life intersect. Through four carefully crafted acts--the collection unpacks the roles we play in our relationships, whether with our parents, our lovers, or even the reflection in our own mirrors.

Inspired by the dramatic elements of the stage, the collection features a cast of characters, dialogue, and vivid theater imagery, creating a reading experience that feels both introspective and performative. The poems delve into the ways we perform for others without even realizing it, and how that performance shapes our identities over time. What happens when we strip away the masks we've worn for so long? What truths are left behind when the lights fade and the curtain falls?

With themes of mental health, the loss and rediscovery of love, coming-of-age realizations, and the imperfect nature of family, Burning The Ghost Light is for anyone who has ever wrestled with the complexity of being human. Blending the deeply personal with the profoundly universal, this collection speaks to those who find themselves constantly straddling the line between authenticity and expectation and will stay with you long after the final act.

Review Quotes

"Burning The Ghost Light is a lyrical production of grief, excavation, and longing, and Conlon's poems radiate in the limelight with both a fearlessness and a gentle humility. I have truly never read a collection like it before; Conlon has brought a level of stunning evolution to not just her own writing but to the craft itself." -- Sierra DeMulder, author of Ephemera

"An innovative and unyielding powerhouse of a book. Conlon does what all the best poets do: she slows down each moment and lets the reader savor each ache and awe, life's entrances and exits, to create an emotional landscape so vulnerable, so lived-in, it takes your breath away. This genre-bending collection expertly utilizes the urgency of playwriting, prose's deep interiority, and poetry's stark surrealness. Its lyrical language will leave you audibly gasping as you fly through its pages." -- Kelly Grace Thomas, author of Boat Burned

"With a gift for plucking improbable tendernesses from the mundane landscapes of memory, Conlon's speakers haunt & hallow the stages they inhabit, in all their fragmentation & howling. This book dives fearlessly into the rippling undertow of the self--& on the brink of drowning, it breaks the surface of the water, re-emerges gasping & alive. -- Topaz Winters, author of So, Stranger and Portrait of My Body as a Crime I'm Still Committing

About the Author

Caitlin Conlon is a writer from upstate New York with a loyal audience across social media platforms, most notably on Instagram. Caitlin is the author of The Surrender Theory and has previously been published in Thought Catalog, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and Rust + Moth, among others. When she isn't writing, she spends most of her free time working through her towering piles of unread books. She enjoys plants, astrology, the color yellow, crewneck sweaters, libraries, and the sound of violins. You can find her at @cgcpoems almost anywhere.