Empty Room With Light

In her first full-length collection, Hostetler draws on her training as a visual artist as she seeks to articulate moments of illumination in everyday life. The collection is structured by a series of frames playfully named after different forms of visual display, such as "Family Album," "Exhibitions," and "En Plein Air." A rich and varied palette of images—from the severe beauty of her Amish aunt’s flower garden to the psychedelic swirls on her own painted toes—both lends Hostetler’s work a distinctive voice and offers readers many points of connection. Each section of the book illuminates a different facet of the poet’s journey through life.