GRAHAMSVILLE – Lisa Titus, formerly Lisa Caloro, is a poetry writer from Grahamsville who recently published a poetry book called First Time, Every Time. 

Titus was the 2020-21 Poet Laureate of Sullivan County, the recipient of a 2021-22 Delaware Valley Arts Association (DVAA) Individual Artist Fellowship and a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee. First Time, Every Time was also a finalist for the Brick Road Poetry Prize. The book is paperback and 99 pages long with 72 poems included. 

Titus said the poems she has written have really been a labor of love. She said that she has been writing over the last several years, with at least 20 of them being published nationally in journals and magazines. 

“I’d say that’s been over the last 15 years,” she said. “So I finally had the time and the energy to put it into a full manuscript collection and started submitting the manuscript in the fall of 2019.”

The title of the book, First Time, Every Time not only comes from a line in one of the 72 poems, but it also has a much deeper meaning. 

“It reflects how a poet looks at the world,” she said. “There’s a metaphor that says, ‘If you can look at the world with new eyes every time you experience something, or the first time you are doing poetry.’”

She said that while what a poet writes in their poems can be about experiences that they had, for her, it’s more of a generational and female thing. 

“The poem is dedicated to women and it says in the dedication page, ‘For the women who make me,’” she said. “Just the idea of women’s stories, how they’re heard and whether they are heard or not. I come from a place where women are not seen or heard. And if they are, it’s usually a negative thing. So sort of telling these stories in a way where you’re going to hear me whether you like it or not.”

Titus also said that on top of the book being dedicated to the women who made her, she dedicates it to her daughter and how that affects the next generation of women. 

Titus said she has been writing poetry most of her life and has an educational background in creative writing and English. She received a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in English from SUNY Fredonia and that’s where she said she really started diving into creative writing. She then earned a Master’s Degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Binghamton University. 

Her book of poems, which is $16.95, can be pre-ordered online at www.brickroadpoetrypress.com/order-books/lisa-titus-first, and will ship on December 4. 

The official publication date is Christmas, December 25th and shipping is free for all U.S. Domestic orders. Titus said that once the book is actually released on Christmas, it is her understanding that it will be available to purchase through third party sellers.