{"id":9631,"date":"2026-10-15T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/?post_type=article&p=9631"},"modified":"2026-10-12T19:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:00:04","slug":"review-women-in-tampa-talking-about-alligators-by-heather-sellers","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/review-women-in-tampa-talking-about-alligators-by-heather-sellers\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Women in Tampa Talking about Alligators <\/em> by Heather Sellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Review: Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators <\/em><\/p>\n

by Heather Sellers<\/p>\n

Lynx House Press; $18.95; paperback<\/em><\/p>\n

June 23, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Review by: Susan Lilley<\/em><\/p>\n

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Heather Sellers\u2019 atmospheric new book deserves your attention.<\/p>\n

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After all, women in Florida do<\/em> talk about alligators. Alligators are a fact of life in a state where the wild meets the manufactured in every subdivision and palm-lined avenue. The title poem highlights a litany of sightings and reports, from a close call between a snack-sized dog with a \u201cgranddaddy\u201d gator to the unspeakable outrage of a foolish northern transplant feeding whole chickens to the creatures, a sure sign of dangerous ignorance. Sellers\u2019 book swims the uneasy line between paradise and danger, as hurricanes and droughts disrupt the vision of Florida seen in postcards and brochures.<\/p>\n

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Talking is prevalent in this collection, and not just about oversized reptiles. In \u201cOn Ellsworth Road,\u201d our speaker resigns herself to a humdrum conversation with a neighbor that \u201cwill be a church service, dull during but so good after,\u201d adding, \u201cIt\u2019s like listening to jazz.\u201d The talking and listening precedes the miracle of sudden rain after a long drought, and the women celebrate the heavy raindrops on the driveway rather than run for cover. You can almost smell the petrichor rising from the dry lawns and dying jasmine.<\/p>\n

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The powers and vulnerabilities of nature are explored in poems of dread and ecstasy. Birds appear as diverse in personality and habits as humans. \u201cTuesday with Oars\u201d follows a harrowing canoe trip reminiscent of Wordsworth\u2019s frank contemplation of the dangers inherent in the natural world in a section of The Prelude<\/em>. In Sellers\u2019 poem, the intrepid speaker reaches safety, hoists her paddle, and howls, claiming to live \u201cunder the eaves of the storm, without sail or safety or certainty.\u201d In another poem, \u201cKayak at Low Tide with Sunset Obscured by Pink Hotel,\u201d two friends paddle amid familiar evidence of humankind\u2019s violence. Observing pieces of detritus, discarded sunglasses, and plastic bags, they come upon a dying wood stork, hopelessly marooned and entangled in \u201claces of fishing line.\u201d The fading light mirrors the knowledge and grief of the paddlers as they point \u201cwith such little hope toward home.\u201d In a dramatic suite of poems, Sellers describes hurricane trauma in rich, imagistic detail, from the preparation stage to the shocking aftermath, when everything looks \u201cinside out.\u201d Never are we more aware of how close we live to wildness than when in the path of a monster storm like the one Sellers leads us through. At one point in \u201cAfter the Streets Flooded,\u201d our speaker returns to her house, terrified of what will happen when she opens the door.<\/p>\n

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The seasons roll on in these poems, including the thrill of a winter cold snap\u2014a phenomenon so welcome and familiar to overheated Floridians. Falling banyan leaves \u201cring like soft bells\u201d on the patio, a setting for burgeoning life, where even an inanimate manufactured object will \u201cself-wild\u201d over time. Sensory experience veers magically into synesthetic details. A speaker smells<\/em> the wildness of a low-flying hawk grazing her hair; she listens<\/em> to the growth of green seedlings in black dirt, \u201cvisibly humming.\u201d In \u201cSuburban Journal,\u201d Sellers argues, with observations that extend the book\u2019s ongoing metaphorical counterpoints between human life and the natural world, that suburban homes (like birds\u2019 nests) look so very much alike in order to help \u201ccontain the chaos of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sellers\u2019 knack for storytelling provides an easy, navigable path for readers. But slowing down to listen to the music in her lines is essential. Sonic pleasure is everywhere, as demonstrated narratively in \u201cUnderstanding Poetry,\u201d in which a few friends read poetry aloud in a driveway. A passing neighbor somehow knows it\u2019s poetry they\u2019re speaking, and with her dog, comes close to hear. I don\u2019t blame her\u2014such moments are irresistible. And so is the whole of Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review: Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators by Heather Sellers Lynx House Press; $18.95; paperback June 23, 2026 Review by: Susan Lilley           Heather Sellers\u2019 atmospheric new book deserves your attention.   After all, women in Florida do talk about alligators. Alligators are a fact of life in a state where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9634,"template":"","categories":[9,139,49,1569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9631","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","category-literary-features","category-reviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: Women in Tampa Talking about Alligators by Heather Sellers - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/review-women-in-tampa-talking-about-alligators-by-heather-sellers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Women in Tampa Talking about Alligators by Heather Sellers - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Review: Women in Tampa Talking About Alligators by Heather Sellers Lynx House Press; $18.95; paperback June 23, 2026 Review by: Susan Lilley           Heather Sellers\u2019 atmospheric new book deserves your attention.   After all, women in Florida do talk about alligators. 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