Author Spotlight: David Groff

Clay and Live in Suspense

Author Spotlight: David Groff’s Clay and Live in Suspense

As we prepare for an eventful Pride Month in June, we’d like to share some poetry from Trio House Press titles, beginning with two by Trio House Press poet David Groff.

In 2023, Trio House Press published a second poetry collection by David Groff, Live in Suspense; his first collection with the press, Clay, was one of the first books published by the press, the winner of the inaugural Louise Bogan Award in 2012, and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Timothy Liu writes about Clay: “The face of AIDS has evolved during the past three decades from something like an instant death sentence to something manageably chronic. David Groff’s poems document what it’s like to make a life with someone thusly affected, as survivors, as husbands, even as he renders a portrait of what love might look like at middle age, what might consequentially endure after an initial frolic in the dunes.”

A sequel of sorts to Clay, Live in Suspense explores the intimacy and complexity of long-term relationships, the AIDS epidemic and its aftermath, and familial love and loss. Rick Barot writes about Live in Suspense: “From the consciousness of the infant on the changing table, to the memory of friends and lovers and communities destroyed by AIDS, to the tenderness of a lover before leave-taking in the present—Groff’s poems take the things of experience and bring into exquisite relief.” Live in Suspense was recently named an Honorable Mention title for the Eric Hoffer Award in Poetry.

Order your copies of Clay and Live in Suspense and get 50% off both until June 30!