The event will celebrate Swaney’s debut poetry collection, Hand Over Hand Over the Edge of the World, published by YesYes Books in December 2025. The collection features prose poems that blur the line between poetry and flash fiction, inviting readers into worlds that are at once familiar, strange, and unexpectedly revealing.
Swaney is an associate professor of English and writer-in-residence at Catawba College. His poems have appeared in Boulevard, Conduit, the Indiana Review, and other literary publications.
“The collection blurs the boundary between prose poetry and flash fiction,” Swaney said. “Many of the poems work as compact narratives that I hope are accessible even as they disorient, as they present a reality that is slightly strange and absurd.”
Swaney said he is especially grateful to see the book published by YesYes Books and to have the opportunity to celebrate it with the campus and local community.
“I’m thrilled that the collection ended up with YesYes Books, a press with a great reputation that has published many excellent writers,” he said. “I’m really excited for the opportunity to share this book with the Catawba community.”
According to the publisher, Hand Over Hand Over the Edge of the World is a debut collection of prose poems suspended between an ordinary world and one where anything can happen. Through compact, direct narratives shaped by absurdity and surprise, the poems explore the rituals of living and reveal truths hidden within the commonplace.
The April 16 event is open to the public and reflects Catawba College’s commitment to celebrating creativity, supporting the literary arts, and creating opportunities for the community to engage with the work of its faculty.
