Lanette Sweeney is a full-time writer whose debut poetry collection, What I Should Have Said: A Poetry Memoir about Losing a Child to Addiction, has just been published by Finishing Line Press. The collection is divided into the stages of grief and focuses on her son's addiction and overdose death, which took place in 2016, two weeks after her wedding. The book features poems by her late son mixed in with her own and is available for purchase from Bookshop.org, Amazon, local bookstores, Finishing Line Press, and directly from the author, whom you can contact at lanettesweeney@gmail.com.
Lanette is a mom, former foster mom, and grieving mother; a grandma and a grieving grandmother, who was cut off from her son's child in early 2019; a feminist and Black Lives Matter activist, a fierce friend, a pet lover who is currently pet mom to
a dog, a cat, a kitten and a puppy, and a great romantic with an even more romantic wife. Lanette is a ravenous reader, as well, and is trying to post all her Goodreads reviews in her sidebar.
In her 35-year writing career, Lanette has published her poetry, short stories, essays and non-fiction articles in the popular women's studies textbook Women: Images and Reality, in daily newspapers, including The Las Vegas Sun, and in literary journals, including Rattle, Blue Collar Review, Down in the Dirt, Foliate Oak Review, Silkworm, and Tiger Shark.
Want to feel less alone? Check out all this pandemic poetry published by Straw Dog Writers' Guild, of which I am a proud member.
