Ask any writer: describing our own work is nearly impossible. There are so many things we’d rather do than answer the constant and inevitable question, “What do you write about?” Eventually, I decided to ask my readers for input.

My professor described my poetry as “humor with an undercurrent of sadness.” A dear friend called it “a smile that’s hard to read.” A colleague said, “You write from a very modern standpoint, but with the eloquence of a distinguished poet.”

I specialize in formal poetry, meaning I write sonnet redoublés, sestinas, canzones, and other styles that experiment with rhyme and meter. Life is a challenge— we can’t write or philosophize our way out of our traumas and struggles—but the forms are organized and have a strict set of rules, helping me (and the reader) gain some control, attempting to make sense of the incomprehensible. I discuss race, grief and mental illness, womanhood, and cultural icons, primarily 80s and 90s rock stars. Even though the subjects can be heavy, the delivery isn’t melodramatic or self-pitying. Sometimes, it’s even pretty funny.

“Out of Order won me over for its exquisite and exacting craft, its persistent frankness in the face of pain, trauma, and even joy. . . did I also mention the book’s mordant and ironic humor, insightful similes and metaphors, and surefooted daring (a sonnet sequence about Ted Bundy!)? Out of Order had me enthralled with the ways it defies and embraces order itself.” - Allison Joseph, author of Confessions of a Bare-Faced Woman

“One of the most appealing aspects of Sears’s work is the rawness of voice and sophistication of style she marries in poems that also display a disarmingly self-deprecating humor.” - Brian Brodeur, author of Some Problems with Autobiography

“This collection’s awareness and whole-hearted embrace of the contradictions and inconsistencies inherent in universalizing personal experience make [Out of Order] feel new and necessary ….. What sets it apart from other such debuts is its keen consciousness of what the reader expects; it both gratifies and foils our formal expectations. . . Even when we’re back in order, we will never be fixed. Sears’s poetry sings this and other human contradictions with humble mastery.”

-James Davis, author of Club Q