The Map of Unseen Things

Brett Warren (she/her) is an editor who holds a BA in English literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is her first book of poetry.

Each poem in The Map of Unseen Things is a gem. Brett Warren captures so precisely, in lyrical language, her hard-earned meditations on grief, loss, gratitude, and joy—all observed with unflinching honesty and grace. Many times, when reading these poems, I had to pause and catch myself—stunned at first, and then filled with wonder. Haunted and grateful, I return to them again and again, line by line, wanting to be immersed in such beauty, to be spiritually restored anew.
—Patty Enrado, author of A Village in the Fields

Brett Warren’s beautiful collection, The Map of Unseen Things, is steeped in wisdom, honesty, and empathy. I was therefore willing—even eager—even happy—to follow her into the depths of sorrow and loss from which many of her poems arise. I felt as if I were looking into both a window and a mirror as I read, immersed in both compassion and solace—a rewarding, hopeful, expansive experience.
—Lauren Wolk, author of Wolf Hollow, Beyond the Bright Sea, Echo Mountain, and My Own Lightning

With cut-glass precision and crackling intelligence, Brett Warren takes us into the unseen yet familiar geographies of life—navigating a tempestuous world, moving through trauma and resilience, making peace with the brokenness of elders. Through it all, Warren’s fierce and attentive kinship with animals and the living world, with the beating heart of life itself, is the compass that guides her, and us, through The Map of Unseen Things.
—Mary E. Cronin, poet, author, educator

Brett Warren's poetry has appeared in Canary, The Comstock Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Hole in the Head Review, Cape Cod Poetry Review, and many other publications. She lives in Massachusetts, in a house surrounded by pitch pine and black oak trees—nighttime roosts of wild turkeys, who sometimes use the roof of her writing attic as a runway.