Author: dr. emily bobo

Dr. Emily Bobo is the author of three books: Fugue (Lost Horse Press, 2009), Instrumental (Hemlock House, 2019), and Tattle Tales (Hemlock House, 2019). She is also the founder and editor of Bobo Books, a local, non-profit anthology series, turning poems into sandwiches for public school kids. She has published original works in literary magazines, such as Hermeneutic Chaos, december, Seneca Review, and Redivider. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University and her PhD in English Literature from the University of Kansas. Currently, Dr. Bobo is Department Chair of Fine Arts & Humanities and Professor of English at Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington, where she teaches writing to single moms, ex-cons, military vets, and other (non)traditional students.

My First Man Left Me

at the amusement park, by the coasters– disappeared into the sticky, sweet, peopled heat– to teach me not to lead

20 true words: June 23rd

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck. fuck. fuckity. fuck. fuck. They overturned Roe v. Wade. They overturned Roe v. Wade. Is anyone surprised?

20 true words: Rape Culture

A toddler slapped my daughter because she didn’t want his hug and his mother shrugged, said, “Boys will be boys.”

20 true words: Favorite Date

rain on the window and Nat King Cole– a curling cabernet, a dog-eared paperback, and your feet entwined with mine

20 true words

Everybody has formative texts. Mine were the King James Bible, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and The Shining— explains everything.

20 true words: (E)strange(d)

Having been cut off, cut out, disowned, and left dangling like a misplaced modifier, she learned the art of editing.

20 true words

These leaves like those leaves– and I am 12 years old again and on a horse, head thrown back–hello.

20 true words

What if there is so little love left that we don’t recognize it anymore? My heart stands, a loaded wound. Loaded Gun – Emily Dickinson …