I am so thrilled to share the cover and pre-order link for my upcoming collection of ecological poetry forthcoming March 23rd, 2027 from Running Press. You can order online from any bookseller and from any bookstore (yay indies!) you love to support. I am also so honored to share that Willow Defebaugh - a writer whose ecological wisdom I cherish and deeply admire - has written a forward to these poetic spores, seedlings, and sprouts.
“When I go to write a poem, I don’t first go to the page. First, I go outside and I open my hands. Syllables are not words on a page. They are bird song and pollen and raindrops translated leaf to leaf as they seek the soil.
When I go to write poetry, I know I must first go to my ecology and begin a conversation that involves all my senses. What is the season saying with shafts of sunlight and the lateness of spring violets?” Sophie Strand - Ecological Poetry: Lyrical Households
For fans of Ada Limón and Kate Baer, Make Me Good Soil is a luminous, intimate new poetry collection from celebrated author Sophie Strand that explores personal love, loss, trauma healing, and illness through the lens of interspecies connection.
Sophie Strand’s poetry is attuned to the too-often ignored truth that human beings are not self-contained, and are rather sustained by vast, living networks beyond their physical selves. Writing through this lens of attention, Strand traces the threads between language and the ecosystems that sustain it, opening poetry itself into a multi-voiced chorus.
Tender yet unflinching, immersive and visionary, Make Me Good Soil invites readers into this interspecies conversation. In an age of increasing isolation and decreasing access to nature, Strand reclaims poetry as a symbiotic exchange—one that nurtures collective connection, shared responsibility, and the possibility of flourishing.
Make Me Good Soil is comprised of 115 poems both brand-new and already beloved by readers, with a foreword from Willow Defebaugh, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning climate and culture magazine Atmos.
You can pre-order here
“Sometimes the only true thing is a poem. In this luminous collection, Sophie Strand’s uncommon genius takes root in the soil of the body. It is love song to Mother Earth, lament for the ravages of illness, equal homage to science and magic. I read this book like an oracle. I am setting my compass by Sophie’s star.” Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism
“Strand, like Dickinson, leads us in verse back to the original cathedral—the holiest, forgotten place, somewhere between earth and the dark matter of our own miraculous embodiment.” Meggan Watterson, The Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Mary Magdalene Revealed
“Strand’s work feels like standing in a high place above a dramatic vista, feeling the awe of nature rising up like a tide to meet you; yet, there is a quality of sacredness and intimacy in her voice, nudging us with earnest emotion to look out on that huge and sweeping landscape below.” Jarod K. Anderson, poet, novelist, and author of Something in the Woods Loves You
Thank you so much to the Hudson Valley that grew my body and the body that wrote these poems. Thank you to my incredible agent Kara Rota and the team at Thompson Literary Agency and to the astute and generous editorial support of Kate Anderson and Julianna Holshue (and the whole team of support!) at Running Press. Pre-orders really help authors prove to their publishers that they are worth an investment of publicity and support. I will also be selling signed copies through The Golden Notebook in Woodstock and announcing a big book party as we get closer to the release!
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