Overview

""Poetry dwells in all of us and it's often a matter of cultivation that leads to fruition. It is about finding voice. My experience as an educator has made this my mantra and mission, whether it has been leading breast cancer survivors in a workshop or nurturing reluctant middle schoolers to write a poem. A discovered voice is something I am privileged to see,"" These poems are poised and self-contained, humming with an internal logic and an external music that soothes and disturbs by turns. They are dense and lush, yet offer the reader uncluttered clarity. Rich with a physicality through which the spirit is revealed, these poems feint from fruits and flowers to family history, including the poet's own in utero, never far from the music of New Orleans street names or the interior puzzles of language. Shades and scents abound, ""a sustainable stain of memory,"" in these wary psalms to the healing properties of the physical world, as well as the uses and misuses of love. -Gina Ferrara ""Gina Ferrara's work captures the heart and soul of Louisiana,"" said First Lady Sharon Landry. ""Through her poetry, she celebrates our communities, our stories, and our culture in a way that is both heartfelt and profound. I know her tenure as Poet Laureate will inspire countless Louisianans to discover and embrace their own creative voices.""

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9781962847391

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Reviews

Gina Ferrara's work captures the heart and soul of Louisiana. Through her poetry, she celebrates our communities, our stories, and our culture in a way that is both heartfelt and profound. -First Lady Sharon Landry Gina Ferrara's new book of poems Weight of the Ripened takes up Adam Zagajewski's exhortation to ""try to praise the mutilated world."" In this collection of stunning lyric meditations, Ferrara explores the landscape of Louisiana, from the streets of New Orleans to the batture, the levee and the garden. In ""Immersion"" she writes, ""You are always on the verge of slipping further, / especially without echelons or stratum in this landscape."" And this is a landscape haunted by a beloved mother and an investigation of women through generations. Weight of the Ripened pays homage to our beautiful, broken world. -Nicole Cooley In astonishing poetic images that bear the weight of memory, grief, trauma, but also the weightlessness of a magnolia leaf floating in the hand, Gina Ferrara's latest book indelibly signs her name to the fertile poetic legacy of New Orleans-the immersive meanings of tupelo and cypress canopies, her mother's lipstick and the blood of the river, the city's ""certainty of sinking"" and the ""deep lavender irises"" of the durable batture. Written after Katrina and in the midst of personal and environmental loss, Ferrara's poetic alluvium is the city itself, where she follows the ""lure of the secretive fig tree"" for buried truths, and morning glories for their ""deep affirmation"" cast through thick dark drapes. A remarkable collection. -Ruth Salvaggio What I appreciate the most about Gina's poems is that they are concerned with the familiar, in the most simple but steady sense,"" ""Her poems take the reader back to one's childhood, one's neighborhood, one's family, one's foods - all the things that make living in Louisiana unique and special. Her poems, with their use of proper names of locales and landmarks, have a sense of place that is approachable for any Louisianian. -Mark C. Tullis

Author Information

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, along with Gov. Jeff Landry, proclaimed Gina Ferrara Louisiana's Poet Laureate on August 14 2025. She will serve for two years. Gina Ferrara lives in New Orleans and teaches English and writing at Delgado Community College where she is an associate professor. Her poetry collections include: The Size of Sparrows (Finishing Line Press 2006) Ethereal Avalanche (Trembling Pillow Press 2009) Amber Porch Light (CW Books 2013), Carville: Amid Moss and Resurrection Fern (FLP 2014) and Fitting the Sixth Finger: Poems Inspired by the Paintings of Marc Chagall published by Aldrich Press in 2017. Her work has appeared in Callaloo, The Tar River Review, The Poetry Ireland Review and others. She is an Elizabeth George Foundation grant recipient, and she curates The Poetry Buffet, a monthly reading series held The Latter Branch of the New Orleans Public Library.

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