Laurie Barton ’08 (Los Angeles, MFA) has released Coco Sinatra, a deeply moving poetry collection. Coco Sinatra is a lyrical journey through solitude, aging, and loss—balanced by a reverence for life’s quiet wonders. With lines that shimmer like “diamonds dipped in suntan oil,” Barton’s poems invite readers into tender, sometimes fractured moments: a family home up for rent, a Christmas pub crawl, and even Elvis and Priscilla tenderly navigating divorce court.
From brushes with fame to the stark realities of dysfunction, tragedy, and the longing for love and safety, these poems walk the fine line between heartache and hope. In the end, a nostalgic train ride suggests a future still unfolding—”climbing like a ripe vine.”
Barton, a Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net finalist, is the recipient of the New Southerner Literary Prize in Poetry. Her work has been featured in Juked, Glass, Bending Genres, Lunch Ticket, Jabberwock Review, and Snakeskin UK. She lives in Southern California, where she teaches English to speakers of other languages.
Learn more at Finishing Line Press.
