Ruined Beauty by Michelle Bitting

Pre-Order Available Now from Walton Well Press

Available at major book retailers on June 1, 2026

Pre-ordered books will ship immediately upon purchase. Pre-order is available to US and UK addresses. The book will be more widely available globally upon the official release date, June 1, 2026. Thank you!

Ruined Beauty is gorgeous. Bitting’s unforgettable poems often feel like timeless architecture or theater. Brothers buried in “ghost country,” a daughter now “a he.” The titular poem, about an entire town devastated by fire, is itself devastating, “a sifted testament,” “a someday salvation” somehow soaring out of the ruin. These are brilliant, transformative poems from an indomitable talent.

—Lee Herrick

Ruined Beauty is an act of masterful flamboyance and swiftness of mind for those who believe in the enchanting flow of language and art. Such memories and wisdoms are guided as much by the long dance of time in the body as they are passionate testimonies of living. We find “our way to see the stars through wars.” Forget neominimalism. These poems reach and reach because Bitting never stops revering what is in front of her —the feeling of being alive, the feeling of flying.

—Major Jackson

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Publisher: Walton Well Press
Pre-Order Available from Publisher: Apr 24, 2026
Publication Date: June 1, 2026
Length: 68 pages

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About the Author

MICHELLE BITTING is the author of five previous collections of poetry including Good Friday Kiss, winner of the inaugural De Novo First Book Award (C & R Press); Notes to the Beloved, which won the Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award (reissued by C & R Press); The Couple Who Fell to Earth (C & R Press); Broken Kingdom, winner of the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize, and Nightmares & Miracles (Two Sylvias Press, 2022), winner of the Wilder Prize. Her chapbook Dummy Ventriloquist launched in 2024 from C & R Press. Michelle is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University.