Local Author Hillary Leftwich Launches Her New Collection, Saint Dymphna's Playbook

Saint Dymphna, according to Denver author Hillary Leftwich, isn't just the patron saint of mental illness — she's also the saint of protecting women. "If you know her story," Leftwich says, "it's actually pretty clear."

Dymphna was a seventh-century Irish saint who was martyred by her own father; possessed by madness after the death of his wife, Dymphna's mother, he sought to force his own daughter to marry him. Having taken a vow of chastity at only fourteen, Dymphna fled to Belgium, only to be tracked down and beheaded by her mad father. "She's known now more for her treatment of the sick, especially the mentally ill, but it's also a direct line to women's issues that are still relevant today," Leftwich says.

The same can be said of Saint Dymphna's Playbook, which mixes Leftwich's characteristic concoction of hybrid verse, poetry, lyric essay and bits of memoir into a ferocious and unapologetic commentary on how a woman's body is treated in a world that seems to have been made to dominate it. The idea of it being a playbook has to do not only with identifying these issues — suicide, sexual assault, the male gaze, or being a child, a mother, a lover, any of it — but also how one can deal with it all. Contextualize it. Survive.

"I'm no Catholic," Leftwich laughs, "but I was really drawn to Saint Dymphna. I think readers will be, too, even if they don't know her. There's a solace to her energy, in what she represents."

Leftwich — a longtime mover and shaker in the Denver literary landscape — will appear at a slew of events in the wake of the collection's release on April 30. (Preorders can still be placed at the University of Hell Press website and purchased directly from the publisher after the launch.)

Leftwich will appear at West Side Books (3434 West 32nd Avenue) for a signing alongside fantasy author David R. Slayton from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, April 26. The next day is her official launch event at Mutiny Comics and Coffee (formerly Mutiny Information Café, at its new location at 3483 South Broadway in Englewood) with a host of other performers, including Aurora Poet Laureate Ahja Fox. There will also be a celebration of the book at Counterpath (7935 East 14th Avenue) — with readings by Suzi Q. Smith and several others — the evening of Wednesday, April 30; and a Zoom production of At the Inkwell — one of the long-standing events that Leftwich helped popularize — starting at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 3.

And that's just a list of the events happening in the next couple of weeks. More are scheduled for summer; keep track of all Leftwich has planned on her website.

The book itself has been a long time coming. "I started writing about six years ago," Leftwich says. "It took two years to write, and four more to publish." That's a common story for authors today, if still a deflating one: A writer finishes a project, it sells to one company, that company isn't doing great and falters, and the writer has to extricate their work from that morass of complications and re-market it all over again. That happening once is painful enough; it happened twice to Leftwich before Saint Dymphna's Playbook finally landed at the University of Hell Press. "That's been amazing," she effuses. "I'm so grateful that the book finally found the right place to call home."

Fans of Leftwich's earlier work — especially the more surreal writings she was known for before her memoir Aura — will still find that beauty and lyricism in Saint Dympnha, but Leftwich says her experience with the memoir definitely lends this new collection more grit, more of the real grime of the world.

That real dirt from the real world is vital to a book like Saint Dymphna's Playbook because the pieces in this collection are a direct response to it. In an America in which the safety of women — in every respect — is not only at risk but under direct attack, a book such as Leftwich's is a vehicle for protest. A rallying cry. "When I first found out this book was going to be published, I actually thought it was terrible timing," Leftwich says. "Awful and horrific, right after Trump was elected. But then a friend pointed out that no, this was perfect timing. This is necessary more than ever right now. And yes, I had to admit, they were right.

"But it's also exhausting," Leftwich sighs. "If you ask any woman who's involved in the community, advocating for women, it's like: Here we go again. And I'm not even at the level of so many who are out there doing the work. I get that. And still, god, so exhausting. Part of me is a little angry that I can't just put a book out and celebrate it. It has to be something, it has to be indicative of what we're up against. But I'm also lucky — I need to remain grateful that I get to do this, to use my words and work for this. I would never do it any other way. So yeah, I remind myself, here we go again. I'm ready for it. It's going to be one hell of a fight."

To enjoy the linguistic pugilism that is Hillary Leftwich's Saint Dymphna's Playbook, pre-order at the University of Hell website. To keep up with her many upcoming signings and readings, see her website's events page.