PRE-ORDER Tomfoolery and Sage · Laura Kester Duerrwaechter & TBA

Pre-order now — releasing April 1, 2027!

Two poets. Twenty-five shared prompts. Two completely different leaps into the unknown.

Opening National Poetry Month 2027, Tomfoolery and Sage is the second experimental Two Worlds, One Voice poetry flip book from Authortunities Press.

Poet Laura Kester Duerrwaechter and Angela Yuriko Smith will begin with exactly the same creative conditions: Key 0: The Fool in the Tarot, the same 25 shared topics, and no knowledge of what the other is writing. Then they step off the cliff.

Drawing from the archetype of The Fool, each poet will independently create a 25-poem chapbook exploring beginnings, innocence, risk, wonder, freedom, faith, divine foolishness, and the courage to move forward without knowing where the path leads.

The experiment asks: What happens when two poets are handed the same map to the unknown and neither is told where to go?

The answer becomes the book itself.

Tomfoolery and Sage is published as a dual-entry flip book with two front covers and no conventional back. Laura's collection begins from one side. Angela's begins from the other. Readers can choose either voice, travel with it toward the center, then physically turn the book over and encounter the same 25 starting points through another poet's imagination.

The format makes comparison part of the reading experience. Shared prompts may produce echoes, contradictions, unexpected parallels, or two journeys that appear to have begun on entirely different roads.

Part Tarot meditation, part creative experiment, and part poetic conversation, Tomfoolery and Sage celebrates National Poetry Month with the archetype that comes before all the others: zero, possibility, and the willingness to begin.

Two poets.

Two perspectives.

Twenty-five first steps.

One leap into the unknown.

Angela Yuriko Smith is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author, editor, educator, and publisher whose work explores creativity, transformation, and the strange possibilities that appear when we step beyond certainty. She leads Space & Time and founded Authortunities, where she experiments with new ways for writers to create, publish, and build sustainable creative lives. A lifelong believer in following curiosity into the unknown, Angela considers every creative act a small leap of faith. Sometimes the wisest path begins by being willing to look foolish.

Laura Kester Duerrwaechter is well known for her brevity and poignant free verse poetry. She is entering her first decade in exploring this art form with hopes of continuing, if given the opportunity. Full disclosure: all original wordwork is human created.