The Hard Embrace: Poems from the 2025 Festival

Cover Design | Interior Design & Layout | Art Direction | client: Camden Festival of Poetry

THE PROJECT: Create a chapbook to capture some of the poetry read at the third year of the Camden Festival of Poetry. The poems included in this chapbook are those shared by the poets of 2025—Judy Kaber, Myronn Hardy, Sal Taylor Kydd, Maya Williams and Beau Williams along with our keynote presenter Jane Hirshfield.

The name for the collection, The Hard Embrace, comes from a phrase in Sal Taylor Kydd’s poem “Crossing,” and reflects the range of voices and approaches in the poems found in these pages.

The cover features art by Camden artist Ingrid Ellison.