
The Weeping Degree
How Astrology Saved Me From Suicide
Kelly Watt(Author)
Judyth Hill(Editor)
Wild Rising Press
Published on 23. August 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
116 pages
978-1-957468-32-7 (ISBN)
Description
BRONZE MEDAL WINNER IN POETRY--The Wishing Shelf Awards, U.K. (2025)
DISTINGUISHED FAVOURITE (2nd prize) --The Independent Press Awards, U.S. (2026)
The Weeping Degree is a poetry collection readers call "powerful" and "healing."
What if a wound could become a gift?
What if your moment of greatest despair sent you a healing journey that would change your life forever?
The Weeping Degree, a gritty collection of poetry and prose takes you on a survivor's journey from brokenness to wholeness, darkness to light; from tears to triumph and finally laughter. This brutally honest poemoir by award-winning writer, Kelly Watt, tells the herstory of a trauma, as it echoes throughout the author's life, slowly transforming through time from a wound to a gift. Along the way, Watt turns to astrology, Buddhism, and the women's movement to make sense of her tragic experiences. Divided into three sections: The Home for Little Girls, The Buddha and The Pink Futon, and Hands Across the World, this narrative travels the globe, starting in the silent shadows of foster care in a bleak Canadian suburb, and emerging into the light and sound of Sanskrit chanting in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Nepal.
Winner of multiple awards-the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and the Independent Press Award--this is a thoughtful and moving collection that reads like a love letter for the silenced and despairing. It will take you on a wild ride, to a place where poetry is an alchemical art; an exploration of the deepest self where your sorrows are transmuted through creativity to self-empowerment and joy.
Take the journey. Immerse yourself in poetry that touches your heart and feeds your soul and transmute your weeping to wonder and insight.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 7 mm
Weight
160 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-957468-32-7 (9781957468327)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Kelly Watt's latest book is a hybrid poemoir of poetry and flash prose, titled: The Weeping Degree: How Astrology Saved Me From Suicide, published by Wild Rising Press, Colorado, August (2024). The book won a BRONZE MEDAL in poetry with The Wishing Shelf Awards, U.K. (2025); Distinguished Favourite (2nd prize) in the Independent Press Awards, US, (2026); and was longlisted for a Hamilton Literary Arts Award, Canada (2025). Recently, Watt's other poems have been longlisted by Exile Edition's Gwendolyn McEwan poetry suite contest (2023; and published in Painted Pebble Lit Mag (2025). She has published two other books: the gothic novel Mad Dog, Doubleday Canada (2001) and the mini travel book Camino Meditations, HSE, U.S. (2014). She has lived in five countries but makes her home in the Ontario countryside with her partner and a shy sheepadoodle.