About the book, Houston Skyline: Selected Poems 
Houston Skyline by Carol A. Taylor is a collection of poetry inspired by a life filled with change and growth. From her humble beginnings in rural Texas, where her family lived simply, to her career in the high-rises of the business world, and later to her years as a language teacher, Carol’s journey is one of perseverance and self-discovery.
Her poems reflect her experiences, blending memories of her childhood with reflections from her later years. Through themes of family, identity, and place, Carol shares her story in a way that is both personal and relatable.
This collection offers a thoughtful look at how life shapes us, showing how Carol found her voice through poetry and her love for storytelling.
Buy, read, and discuss this book:
My Thoughts 
Carol Taylor’s volume of poems, Houston Skyline gives us glimpses into the author’s life in the form of a collection of her poems and short bits of transitional prose. Some of the pieces have been published before, others are new, but every one was a treat to be savored.
At times gentle, wry, poignant, and wistful, this collection is well-crafted without feeling crafty. It’s sometimes very candid (“Hard Times” is a recollection about a damaged toilet seat!) and often tied to the weather, which makes sense, because the weather in Texas changes on a dime and is never without drama.
“You seldom see downpours like that ay more, like the deluge the day they buried old Berry, rain blowing sideways and dark coming down,” she writes in “Funeral in the Rain,” and immediately you can feel it, smell it, taste it.
Taylor’s word-choices are delicious, and her descriptions are cinematic. Because it’s poetry, it’s an easy book to pick up, put down, read through, and then revisit, which is what I did.
If you love poetry, in general, and Texas in particular, you will love this book. If you merely love either one of those things, I feel Houston Skyline will make you love them.
Goes well with: sweet tea, fresh strawberries, and a summer rainstorm.
In his third collection, poet Nick Courtright explores the world at large in an effort to reconcile selfhood as an American in the international community, while also seeking anchors for remembering a wider world often lost to view in our shared though increasingly isolated experience of reality.
Nick Courtright is the author of The Forgotten World (2021), Let There Be Light (2014) and Punchline (2012), and is the Executive Editor of Atmosphere Press. His work has appeared in The Harvard Review, Kenyon Review, and The Southern Review among dozens of others. With a Doctorate in Literature from the University of Texas, Nick lives in Austin with the poet Lisa Mottolo and their children, William and Samuel. Find him online and watching birds on his porch.
