Dinner’s destroyed and the smoke alarm screams its plastic head off. Teddy’s face is emergency-red, tears flooding his cheeks. Beep beep bye bye, he pleads, pointing at the smoke alarm, which I silence by beating with a towel, but Teddy’s still hysterical even though every last beep has died. For weeks, Teddy points to every smoke alarm in […]
Sara Ries Dziekonski
Sara Ries Dziekonski (Sara Ries), a Buffalo native, holds an MFA in poetry from Chatham University. Her first book, Come In, We're Open, which she wrote about growing up in her parents’ diner, won the Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition and was published in June 2010 by the NFSPS Press. Her poem, “Fish Fry Daughter,” was selected by Ted Kooser for his American Life in Poetry column. Ries Dziekonski taught composition and literature at Erie Community College before teaching for SENA in Colombia. Her chapbooks include Snow Angels on the Living Room Floor (Finishing Line Press 2018) and Marrying Maracuyá (Main Street Rag 2021), which won the Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Competition. She lives with her husband, son, and cat and works for Keep St. Pete Lit as an editor and creative writing teacher. She is the co-founder of Poetry Midwives Editing and Submission Services, which she offers through Keep St. Pete Lit.