Praise for Writing the Stars

Here in these poems, Sister Lou explores the vicissitudes of life with palpable grace. She brings light to the dark places and serves each reader a road, a map, a compass toward sweet peace.

—Alice Faye Duncan, author of Coretta's Journey and This Train Is Bound for Glory

The poet’s job is to erase the imaginary line between the divine and the physical. Lou Ella Hickman does so with passion in this collection of poems that sing the infinite beauty of this finite and fallen world.

—Colleen Shaddox, activist and writer

As my students would say, “She doesn’t play.” Lou Ella Hickman’s collection, writing the stars, touches on topics that matter. No foolishness or triviality here. These poems walk us into cancer and the Shoah. These poems consider wildfires, slashed cotton bales, and nuns who served as Civil War nurses. We encounter the flight into Egypt, forgiveness of torturers, even “a hag of a woman” beside her Kentucky moonshine machinery. Yet while these poems carry true human weight, their lean simplicity gives them a brightness, a beauty, even a kindness that walks beside the reader as we consider their truth. Sr. Lou Ella is a necessary voice, a poet we need. 

—Joseph Ross, author of Crushed & Crowned and Raising King

In Writing the Stars, Sister Lou Ella Hickman offers a vibrant collection of poetry full of grit and grace. She is something like a wrangler corralling wild mustangs, whispering eternal truths about the everydayness of life's difficult moments. Her poetry forges a peaceful partnership between reader and muse and tradition. The alluded violence in her lines gives way to something satisfactory, something holy.

—Ken Hada, author of Come Before Winter