To Grieve and to Remember: Introducing The Banished and the Dead by Anne Leigh Parrish
What does it mean to remember someone who is gone? To carry their laughter, their unfinished stories, their echoes, and their silence? In her newest poetry collection, The Banished and the Dead (Unsolicited Press, March 10, 2026), acclaimed author Anne Leigh Parrish steps into the terrain of loss— but does so with a remarkable sense of clarity and grace.
This book does not shy away from sorrow. Instead, it walks directly into it, listens for what remains, and finds not just pain, but beauty.
A Conversation Between Grief and Wonder
Across seventy-eight poems, Parrish tends to the intricate emotional landscape that emerges in the wake of loss. There are poems of longing, of restless memory, of the ways absence rearranges the world. But there are also poems of joy—moments when the light shifts, when a bird lands unexpectedly on a branch, when color floods the sky.
Grief here is not something to be conquered.
It is something to be held.
Nature plays a profound role in this work: water, light, moss, the shape of coastline during winter. These elements give voice to feelings that resist being spoken aloud. They remind us that mourning is not static—it changes and moves, sometimes quietly, sometimes all at once.
Art That Deepens Meaning
The collection is accompanied by twenty captivating illustrations by designer and artist Kathryn Gerhardt, whose work enriches the emotional resonance of the poems. The interplay between word and image turns the reading experience into something immersive—a small world the reader is invited to step into.
The poems and drawings together form a landscape of reflection, where memory becomes something almost tactile. Pages feel like rooms, or perhaps trails, that we travel slowly, intentionally.
For Readers Who... Feel Deeply
The Banished and the Dead is a book for readers who are unafraid of quiet. For those who have lost someone. For those who have found themselves changed. For those who want to look at the world and see not only the sorrow, but the radiance that lives alongside it. This is poetry that lingers. Poetry that returns. Poetry that understands that memory does not end. It reshapes, it softens, it glows.
Meet the Author
Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of seventeen books spanning fiction and poetry. Known for her keen emotional insight and vivid sense of place, she draws much of her creative inspiration from the rugged landscapes of Washington’s South Sound, where she is also a devoted photographer.
Learn more at www.anneleighparrish.com and www.lavinistudios.com.
Coming March 10, 2026
The Banished and the Dead will be available through independent bookstores, major online retailers, and directly from Unsolicited Press.
If you are a reader who believes that grief can be a doorway, that remembrance can be a form of love, and that poetry can illuminate the quietest corners of the heart—this collection is waiting for you.
