#Maria Zoccola

[fragbot]

if i can just grip the edges of it. if i can close my fist and catch the blade on the inside. ghost-helen, helen made of mist and light, who ran and ate and returned my body when the stage went dark. if i could shake myself awake, i don't think i'd try.

- from "and another thing about the affair," Maria Zoccola

[rustbeltjessie]

“helen of troy tells her mother it’s a graduation girls’ trip and drives alone to the clinic in nashville” by Maria Zoccola, from Helen of Troy, 1993

the secret to the hair is backcombing till your arms go numb, long shank locked between forefinger and thumb, snarls of bottle blond shaved down on a comb as spry and quick as the scraps lit before each football game, the boys jumpy with nerves, savaging each other in short growling bursts. this is after the hot rollers, before the aqua net, chemical fog floating through the motel 6, catching on the mirror, the faucet, the light bulb, the back of your throat when you huff down the burn. eyes in baby blue, lined with black pencil, swoop the sides out and up, powder, brow tint, two coats of mascara. lipliner in coral glow, filler a blend of covergirl and maybelline. cosmo propped against the hair dryer, may of ‘81: i had a nose job and look at me now!, blush done up just like kelly le brock. two spritzes to finish, neck and wrist, rub the pulse points together, rose and lilac running wild, an open field you can see when you unfocus your eyes, what’s that growing there, what is that harvest coming in, gold upon gold, a sweet wind that takes the clouds and pushes them higher, throws the birds into tumbled exclamation, oh— keys in the purse. aspirin. two aspirin. final check: teeth, hair, nails, eyes, dab the eyes, don’t smudge, don’t ruin it, not for something so small, for one slip—after all that work.

[nicogayngelo]

Books Read in 2025

Helen of Troy, 1993

i wasn't me at all i wasn't mama i wasn't woman i wasn't helen i was yellow teeth at night i was rip and tear and mouth of blood i was something so large i shook the earth unpennable unappeasable intractable i was this thing no one would ever call beautiful

[lisakamolnick]

Florida Bards Anthology Launches in June

[gorimbaudandgojohnnygo]

helen of troy cleans up after the barbecue

smoke rose from the cooling grill in inconstant streams, at times hazing around the mounted floodlight, at times indistinguishable from the envelope of night. wild things from the woods treated our home as their home, stealing among the sinks and rises of the land my husband owned and making off with what they found there; the fence, nearly finished, was new. stars burrowed across a wool shroud, wet lines of vapor tracking headlights in the road. i was bending at the knees and rising again, gathering the white plates from their separate pools of darkness, bringing them up from cool and ant-filled grass. i didn’t know i was a person until i stopped being one. my mind held this thought only distantly as i worked, the way a dog barking far-off becomes to the ear a kind of metallic ringing.  the white plates glowed like scattered moons; i could choose which one to kneel to next. hinges like birdcall: the screen door slapping against its frame. my husband on the patio, returning chairs to their ordered line. it was early fall. the trees were changing, but the air still burned. i wore nothing on my arms. neither did he.

—Maria Zoccola (x)

[woahpip]

reading a book of poems right now that's what if helen of troy was in 1993 tennessee and it's SO GOOD!!!!! i'm only a 1/3 through but I know it will be one of my faves for the year.

[erstwhilesparrow]

A zombie catches wind of them while they’re still settling and Pix gets up from the fire, unhurried. He dispatches it with his sword before Katherine even thinks to call a warning.

They don’t need each other, really.

“Who are you, anyway?” Katherine says. “You don’t just live in the ruins.”

Pix laughs. “Oh, but I do.”

It’s a cold night. “Who’s waiting for you?” Katherine asks, bringing her hands closer to the fire under the guise of checking on dinner.

“No one,” Pix says.

Katherine thinks about going back to GlimmerGrove and her heart aches like falling in love.

[typingwithmyhandstied]

May 2025 Reads

Helen of Troy, 1993 by Maria Zoccola--- I read this on a whim after seeing that V.E. Schwab read it on her Goodreads. (Yes, I follow and check it regularly.) I have been cautious of modern retellings of mythological things lately, mostly due to all the really bad ones. (If I see one more dark romance Greek retelling, I am going to cry.) Yet, I thought this would be better because it's poetry, and there are so many good mythological retellings. I didn't want to just not do any of them. I am so glad I did because I loved this. It was Helen of Troy, but it also wasn't. It was using Helen of Troy to explore our modern world in a really good way. I listened to the audiobook which really added to my reading experience. Although, I do kind of wish that I could read it too to take it in a little better. This was a killer poetry book and especially good for the fact that it did tell a story. I specifically liked the "Helen of Troy gets asked to the spring formal" one. I really enjoyed this whole poetry book though. I genuinely believe it did what it wanted to do really well.

The Orange and other poems by Wendy Cope--- I first picked this up at the bookstore because @true-bluesargent had it in one of her monthly reading posts. I am so freaking glad I did. I love this. My only complaint is that it is so short. This book has one of the best builds of any poetry book that I've read recently. I did not think it would get to the point it did when I started it. I loved it so so so much. I especially loved all the rhyming schemes and things.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater--- This was obviously a reread. I think I loved it even more this time around. I'm reading it with my mom out loud. She's loving it, and it's her first time ever reading it. She somehow forgot most of what I told her last summer, so I am happy. I literally love everything about this book.

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao--- Another reread. This book makes me so damn happy. I read it due to a crisis that I was having similar to Jo's whole "everyone will leave me for their romantic partner someday" thing, so reading it helped! I want to make all my friends read this book, and I am going to attempt to.

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang--- I finished on the last day of May after reading it for over a month. A masterpiece. These books are so good. I don't know what to think about so many aspects of this world. It's all so complicated in a really real way. I would talk about this book with anyone. I'm sad because I'm not going to read the next book right away because of new releases. I am also excited about new releases!!!!!

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri--- My last assigned reading book for my English class this year! It was an assigned reading book of the variety of I'm so glad that I was forced to read this book. I loved it SO much! It's a collection of short stores which isn't usually my thing, but they all went together so well. The central themes of loneliness and reaching for connection interwoven with parts of the author's own culture. I LOVED IT.

[fragbot]

i don't know if you have ever started growing away from yourself. a ribbed shuck peeled down, inch by inch, from the gold. shadows on the dirt: corn bending toward the harvester, leaning forward in relief.

- "helen of troy folds laundry in a dim room," Maria Zoccola

[kaitlin-writes]

“I want you listening to me.”

Had a lovely time listening to Maria Zoccola talk about her new poetry collection “Helen of Troy, 1993.” 🤎

[poemsister]

"helen of troy feuds with the neighborhood" by Maria Zoccola, from Helen of Troy, 1993

[libraryleopard]

February reads

The Butterfly Assassin by Finn Longman

Woodworking by Emily St. James

The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz

A Year Without a Name by Cyrus Dunham

How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris

The Rise of Issa Igwe by Shanna Miles

Sugaring Off by Gillian French

Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My (In)Fertility by Michelle Tea

A Bloomy Head by J. Winifred Butterworth

The Ghostwing’s Lie by Rebecca Mix

The Nickel Boys by Collson Whitehead

The Sweetness Between Us by Sarah Winifred Searle

Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller

The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis

Fat and Queer: An Anthology og Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives edited by Bruce Owens Grimm, Miguel M. Morales, and Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini

Tonight We Rule the World by Zack Smedley

All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Death’s Country by R.M. Romero

Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems by Maria Zoccola

Leap by Simina Popescu

It Gets Better…Except When It Gets Worse (And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me) by Nicole Maines

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

[liuisi]

random poetry question! what imagery has been showing up a lot in your poetry lately? any recurring motifs/symbols/images that aren’t Meant to be recurring but seem to be repeatedly emerging?

THIS IS SO AWESOME THANK U 4 THE QUESTION!!!

lately I've been a huge fan of poetry that reads like a conversation.... as if you're talking to someone. this started when i read helen of troy calls her sister by maria zoccola which is an absolutely PHENOMENAL poem that i have not been able to stop thinking about. i just think there's such an allure to poem that feel so mundane... that have this like very normal framing and maybe even very simple wording, that aren't Grandiose but still say So Much!

that's my favourite type of poetry, i think... something simple that just sticks in your mind. it feels like there's so much more talent needed to make it Good without leaning on Big Imagery... you know?

now i say this and i def have been trying to write like that but it's not quite working out yet... i need to get used to it before writing something good with it i think. my latest poem (the tv one) was like a test run for it and i do like it but i do feel like it could be better... but not much to do but practice until i get there!!