The August selection for Poetry Is Not a Luxury is Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's Slamming Open the Door. This award-winning 2009 collection captures a mother's forced journey into grief after her daughter was murdered. The poems evoke the loss and fury keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.

"I really love the poems we're about to hear. They're beautifully written. But some of them really hurt. They're about the worst thing that can happen to a mother, the murder of her child."—Terry Gross, Host of Fresh Air

Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno was an editor at American Poetry Review and the founder of Musehouse in Chestnut Hill. A tireless supporter of writing, and of families of murdered children, she died this spring after a five year battle with cancer.