We’re happy to welcome Wisconsin poet Andrea Potos back to talk about her recently published chapbook, Two Emilys (Kelsay Books, 2025).

As you may have guessed, the “Emilys” in question are revered literary icons Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson, contemporaries from opposite sides of the Atlantic who continue to mystify us with their creative genius. Though one was British and the other American, their lives had interesting parallels.

Both were unmarried and largely reclusive. They cherished home as sanctuary, wrote on scraps of paper while cooking and baking, were known for their bread recipes. The Emilys were religious skeptics living within religious families, and fascinatingly enough, they were ultimately Victorian badass writers “masquerading” as domestic spinsters, sublimating their passions and unfulfilled desires into art.

In Two Emilys, we travel with Potos to Haworth and Amherst via evocation, dream, memory, and imagination. She addresses her muses with awe and reverence, while acknowledging a unique kinship as fellow wanderer, keen observer, lover of beauty, and sister poet dedicated to her craft.

These poems are sheer loveliness to read with moments ethereal, delicate, sometimes humorous, warmed by genuine admiration. We thank Andrea for dropping by to tell us more about the book and for sharing all the wonderful photos + a delicious recipe. 🙂

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Love your evocative photograph of Haworth Moor gracing the front cover of this book. What do you remember about the day you took it?

I remember the sunshine and the wind; it was a stunning April day!  I was so happy to be there again!  (my third time). 

How and when did you first become enamored of Emily Brontë’s and Emily Dickinson’s work? 

I “found” Emily Brontë as a young girl, reading Wuthering Heights, and watching the 1971 movie version with Timothy Dalton as  Heathcliff. Boy, did he smolder!  🙂 I probably went back to the theater at least five times to watch it, and I read the novel several times. I came to Emily Dickinson a little later, when my father bought me the Richard B. Sewell biography (a two-volume, delicious boxed set) of The Life of Emily Dickinson. 

Both Emilys have served as your muses for many years. What has each taught you about writing poetry? 

I think Dickinson taught me that writing in a condensed, spare and precise way could be so powerful. Brontë taught me that passion for story is another singularly powerful force when starting to write.  

What misconceptions do most people have about the Emilys? Have you tried to address any of these in your poems?   

I think people believed Brontë to be rather savage and moody, and Dickinson to be reclusive and strange. Though there may be some elements of truth to these notions, they are by no means the whole stories. I don’t think I’ve really covered this in my poems . . . at least not yet.    

Though they never met, Dickinson held Brontë in high regard, even requesting that “No Coward Soul is Mine” be the only poem read at her funeral. Have you ever considered writing a series of letter poems between the Emilys? Though 12 years apart in age, they did have much in common (e.g., breadmaking, love of hearth and home, supportive siblings).  

I haven’t considered it, but I will now!  I love that idea so much. And I’ve always loved that Dickinson wanted that poem read at her funeral; it made me feel even closer to her somehow . . . 

If the Emilys were alive today, what do you think these two reclusive poets would make of social media? Would they eschew it, or embrace the opportunity to freely express themselves from the privacy of home?  

I doubt they would care for it much–the distraction and the invasion of it!! 🙂  

If you could give each of the Emilys a poem from this book, which two would you choose and why?  

Hmmm . . . well, I might give Dickinson “Upon Waking” as it reminds me of her so much, and I’d give Brontë “Walking the Brontë Moor in Spring” as walking on the seemingly-boundless moors was such an enormous part of her dailiness and her inspiration.   

UPON WAKING

     after ED

I'll tell you how the day began --

one dream strand at a time --

pictures sifted in gold-burgundy

the messages, like keys, were lost

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WALKING THE BRONTË MOOR IN SPRING

Get your naggy self out there, start
along the public footpath, past the barns
and their newborn lambs curled up in the yards;

begin at the top, alongside tall, bent grasses and gorse,
browned heather and stones and crags -- past
Penistone hill and the reservoir. The wind

is wider up there, let yourself walk
for unmeasured time, the moor air
erase your every last edge.

You’ve been lucky enough to visit both the Emilys’ homes and spend time in the very rooms where they wrote. What were your first impressions of those spaces, and how did being there affect your appreciation of their work?

Being in both places was TRULY spine-tingling! I could not have appreciated their work more, but walking in their actual footsteps was, as John Keats would say, “an era in my existence.” I mean, you just want to stand there and breathe the air they breathed! I’d never tire of returning to either place. I have only been to Dickinson’s Homestead once.  

What’s your favorite poem in the book? Please provide a little backstory about what inspired it and any special challenges you faced writing it.

I’m not sure I have one, though the ones harkening back to girlhood hold a special nook in my heart. I’m terribly nostalgic! These poems were easy to write, as I loved placing myself back in the Fox Bay Theater in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin on a Saturday afternoon . . .

TO EMILY BRONTË

Eleven years old and sunk in the red velveteen
chair at the Fox Bay Theater, I absorbed
the raw sculpture of Penistone Crag,
bracken and gorse, the peat
blanketing the Yorkshire moors. Heathcliff
with his sea-green eyes, black cape swirled
around him, how tall and alarmingly
handsome he looked.
At Catherine's grave he cried, you wrote:
I cannot live without my life,
desire held hostage in his eyes,

my heart held stunned in my chest.
Years later, I return to your words;
travel to the stone-
flagged floors of your home;
your desk-box saved under glass,
its lining worn, purple velvet
splotched with red sealing wax.
Walking the rocky footpath towards swells
of purple heather, I remember the words
of the local stationer who saw you
returning one evening: her countenance was lit up
by a divine light. I imagine
I hear your skin
brush mine, whisper what you know:
the silence, the stars
that burn through the page.
Hone the hours to their core -- you might have said --
wind and poem, passion and moor. 

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Describe each of the Emilys and yourself in just one word.

Dickinson:  crystal.

Bronte:  stone.

Me:  lace. 

Since it’s Good Friday, please share a favorite Easter recipe and tell us a little about it. 

The Greek koulouria cookie my Yaya (beloved maternal grandmother) taught me. It goes especially well with coffee or tea.  Dunked too, of course. I made these for the Tea With the Emilys launch party I had for this book!

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MEMENTOS: Two more poems from Two Emilys

A STONE FROM EMILY BRONTË

On the high Yorkshire moor
I found it, dark spotted blue and glazed
with stars and twilight.
One wind-lashed mile away
from her parsonage home,
I bent down to keep it --
dreamed her gaze my own.

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THREE ACORNS FROM EMILY'S YARD

I pocketed them that day
the tour guide was not looking.

I nodded to myself that she
would not mind for me to hold

in my palm and carry home
such Possibility.

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TWO EMILYS: Poems
by Andrea Potos
published by Kelsay Books, January 2025
Poetry Chapbook, 48pp.

♥️ For information about all of Andrea’s poetry books, check out her Official Website.

♥️ Previous Andrea Potos posts at Alphabet Soup:

Author Chat (Her Joy Becomes)

A Sampler of Poems from Marrow of Summer

Three Poems from Mothershell

Author Chat + Sample Poems from Arrows of Light

Poem + Recipe: “Yaya’s Sweets” (recipe for Baklava)

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🥀 SPECIAL BOOK GIVEAWAY 💐

Basil and Cornelius are excited to present one lucky Alphabet Soup reader with a brand new copy of Two Emilys. For a chance to win, please leave a comment at this post no later than midnight (EDT) Wednesday, April 30, 2025. You may also enter by sending an email with EMILYS in the subject line to readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only, please. Good Luck!

ETA: Some readers have reported having difficulty leaving comments, and I’m trying to contact tech support about this issue. Please email me if you’d like to enter the giveaway. Thanks!!

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Lovely and talented Jone Rush MacCulloch is hosting the Roundup this week. Waltz on over to check out the full menu of poetic goodness being served up around the blogosphere. Enjoy your weekend!

🌷HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY PASSOVER! 🌾

🐰🐰 Hope the E.B. brings you lots of tasty treats!🐰 🐰

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