Surviving the Moment of Impact

"A very young poet who seems to have acquired a lifetime of experience while retaining a vast empathy (without a trace of sappiness) is a rare thing. These carefully calibrated poems have narratives, and form an autobiography; they have the suspense and fullness of short stories with knockout final lines. The locale may be specific (Midwest, semi-rural), the voice (adolescence on the cusp of adulthood) and themes (family, desire, exile) recognizable, but T. Cole Rachel makes the mundane feel urgent, fresh, vital. This is powerful writing by a witness wise beyond his years. The gripping poems are so good that you find yourself wanting the writer to try his hand at everything: films, novels, songs, plays-they all seem within his reach."

- Bret Easton Ellis, Author of Glamorama and American Psycho

Bend, Don't Shatter
Poets on the Beginning of Desire

A poetry anthology for young adults that realistically and beautifully deals with what it means to come of age gay, lesbian, transgender, or, as is perhaps more often the case in adolescence, totally confused.