Sign-In
Cart
Bad Neighborhood
Paperback
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: Jun 12 2026
Pages: 124
Weight: 0.39
Height: 0.29 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Cindy Frenkel is one of Detroit's top poets. In Bad Neighborhood, she uses beautiful narrative poems to explore themes of life, death, tragedy, and hope. This reflective compilation transports readers to Detroit in the mid-to-late 20th century with heartfelt poems about her parents' lives and passing, her brother's tragic death, and more. The poems feature original imagery that reveals the mysteries of the soul. Widely praised and published, this exceptional poet is a must-read for anyone who appreciates beautifully crafted poetry.
-M.L. Liebler
Even with the topics of suicide and death, these are poems I could read over and over . . . and before bed no less!
-Blair Carleton
In Bad Neighborhood, Cindy Frenkel displays a remarkable range of artistic approaches to surviving trauma. During her mother's demise, a sibling dies by suicide. In Broken Promises, she writes, When I was with my mother / my father made me promise / not to cry. He worried / it would feed her cancer. / I complied. Or tried. Wrenching poems address mental illness, addiction, or war. Others focus on delights, from her love of people to flora and fauna. Frenkel's collection, layered with paradoxical insight, richly serves us all, offering stunning realization, comforting empathy, and intelligent strength.
-Jack Ridl
With her alchemy of plain-spoken, suddenly perfect metaphors, and explosive, morally anchored last lines, Cindy Frenkel portrays a family . . . the marvels of this collection are the sassy buoyant poems of love for a daughter and unexpected love after divorce . . . Frenkel uses memory, the dynamics of ageing parents, and the legacy of the Holocaust to pierce use with her bullseye one-liners.
-Molly Peacock
Also from
Frenkel, Cindy
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Alighieri, Dante
Pitavy, Francois
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover