Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millennium
Article Compiled by: Aimee Shramko
Posted: November 6, 2025
You’re Invited!
What: Launch for Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millennium by Dr. Rosemarie Dombrowski
When: Monday, December 8th; Reception at 5:30pm, Reading at 6:00pm
Where: ASU Tempe Campus, Old Main Basha Library
To Note: Paid Parking Available in the Fulton Center Garage - 300 E University Drive
One of our most beloved professors at ASU OLLI has published her fourth collection of poems entitled Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millennium. “It is a series of prose poems based on subjective, intuitive translations of Emily Dickinson’s fascicles (1), the forty hand-bound books that she curated from 1858 to 1866. Arguably, the fascicles represent the beginnings of feminist zine culture—the DIY, self-publishing endeavors taken up by women and marginalized peoples from the 1950s through the 90s.
Contemporary zine culture shares many of its harbinger’s motives, perpetually holding space for marginalized people as well as anyone renouncing the literary marketplace.
Given that the fascicles are one of the earliest examples of curatorial agency by a female poet in America, it seems apt to situate Dickinson – with her wildly unconventional linguistic, syntactical, and sexual proclivities – as the foremother of modern zinesters. Thus, the poems in this collection are cut-ups/collages/translations of the fascicles and “the loose sheets,” with each poem representing an entire fascicle/zine. In true zinester fashion, this collection is also a kind of manifesto—on love, sexuality, identity politics, and society. As Pete Miller stated, “this is a book to read with pen-in-hand [or sharpie] as you underline all your new favorite aphorisms,
mantras, and future tattoos.”
EXCERPTS from Emily’s Advice to Girls in the New Millennium:
FIRST
Every couplet is a mysterious prayer, a pilgrimage into a thorny patch
of mind. Remember what you’ve forgotten—that the moral is painted
in ballads and love songs. That the mourning is choked in sand. Recite
the names of the constellations and their meanings. Sleep beneath a
tree. You can never separate yourself from the waters of grief, and you
will never row to shore. Loss is the deepest hallelujah, so spread your
wings and sigh.
SECOND
How syllables can pierce the body. How songs can be tarnished. How
you bless the soldiers and count their feet. When the woods have been
robbed and the wheels spun, pray to the god of forgetfulness—deep
within the bark. When your heart is a violet buried in snow. When
you’ve searched the forest for weapons and only found words. How
there’s a quietness without birds, no offerings murmuring the names
of roses.
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The following are some reflections on her phenomenal new work:
“I’ve gotten to know Dr. Dombrowski 'RD' through a series of invaluable and personally rewarding OLLI classes such as 'Writing for Wellness,' 'Navigating Grief,' 'Poetic Mindfulness,' and a course on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the 'Re-creation of Medical Narratives.' Each class in its own way has eased my journey through one of the most difficult periods in my life - and for that, I will always be grateful!
Her insightful words touch my soul and speak to me as a partner on this journey through life and loss. After reading the lines 'You can never separate yourself from the waters of grief, and you will never row to shore. Loss is the deepest hallelujah, so spread your wings and sigh' I am assured I do not travel this path alone. I’ve been heard and understood."
- With Gratitude, Aimee Shramko, ASU OLLI member
"Emily’s Advice To Girls in The New Millennium is a deeply personal manuscript providing forty concise, penetrating entries; word sculptures made from the well-defined granite of prose enhanced with the hypnotic allure of poetic meditations - proclaiming the gratification enjoyed from unforeseen pursuits and unexpected pleasures, as well as the mortification and humiliation endured from unavoidable frustrations and uncontrollable disappointments.
Rosemarie Dombrowski’s transformation and interpretation of the critically-renowned Emily Dickinson fascicles has created, in this beautifully-designed collection, a passionate intersection between the well-known Dickinson biography and her extensive body of poetry intertwined with Dr. Dombrowski’s own personal experiences and insights.
Together I was entranced by Dickinson’s vision, sensitivity and eternal aspirations, magnified and modernized by Dr. Dombrowski’s clearly stated candor, daring frankness and distinctive aura. As Dr. Dombrowski writes in her twenty-first entry – 'When you’re years from home, when you’re facing the danger--veiled love or a fork in the road. When you’ve lived small and confined, trapped in the prose of life until your brain explodes like a star. Latch it with your hand. The wooden laugh, the sinking rose given to you by the gods. No matter what you do, advance the journey. Feel your way around the bowels of language and fly.'
I strongly recommend that you let the prose flow over your consciousness and the poetry seep deep into your spirit and soul. Share the crucial, valuable advice offered in this book with the Millennium Girls you know and love. Let them know it comes from two generations of poets who are connected by spirit, compassion and eternal empathy."
- Mike Temkin, ASU OLLI Student, Blogger on Linkedin, Substack and Medium.
“We raise girls to be strong but socialize them to be polite. Emily's Advice to Girls in the New Millenium presents this impossible disconnect to the girls and the grownups who love them. Mining Dickinson's fascicles for clues to what Dickinson wanted for women, Dombrowski creates a gorgeous and lively compilation of bitter and beautiful truths in the form of small prose poems that remind girls of their vulnerabilities and how to conquer them: 'Leave a trail of twigs for your soul, something to build an altar with on the other side.' "
- Julia Lisella, poet, teacher, scholar, and author of Our Lively Kingdom
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Dr. Dombrowski’s book can be purchased through the following vendors:
Finishing Line Press
Amazon
And if you’re interested in taking one of RD’s popular classes, do consider the offering below and look for her class on Poetry & Music done in collaboration with the Musical Instrument Museum coming this spring!
“Poetry as Medicine: An Undergraduate-Led Dialogue on Aging & Healing”
- Where: Tempe Public Library
- When: December 2 and 4th - 1:00-2:30pm
- You can register for the course via the following link: https://www.asuolli.org/asu/course/course.aspx?catId=103
ABOUT DR. ROSEMARIE DOMBROWSKI
Rosemarie Dombrowski (RD) is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, AZ, the founding editor of rinky dink press, and the founding director of Revisionary Arts, a nonprofit that facilitates self-care and healing through poetry. She is the recipient of an Arts Hero Award, a Great 48 award, a Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, an Arizona Humanities Speaker of the Year award, and an Arizona Capital Times Leader of the Year award.
RD has published three collections of poetry: The Book of Emergencies (Five Oaks Press, 2014), The Philosophy of Unclean Things (Finishing Line Press, 2017), and The Cleavage Planes of Southwest Minerals [A Love Story], winner of the 2017 Split Rock Review chapbook competition. She was named a finalist for both the Whitman Bicentennial Award (2019) and the Joy Harjo Poetry Contest (2023), and her work has been featured on the TEDx stage, NPR, and in numerous publications.
RD is a Teaching Professor at Arizona State University specializing in medical poetry, the poetry of witness, and DIY print culture. She is the founding faculty editor of ISSUED: stories of service, the creator of Verses for Vets, and the faculty editor of Grey Matter, the medical poetry journal at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.
She lives in Phoenix with her son (B) and her three cats (PB&J).
ART CREDITS: Art work by Letisia Cruz https://www.lesinfin.com/
RESOURCES:
- A Fascicle is “one part of a book that is published or made available separately” Cambridge Dictionary
