The Map Was Etched in Ash

NEW RELEASE!

Following the celebrated success of her debut chapbook I Am Still Becoming, poet Stacey Mataxis Whitlow returns with her first full-length collection—an extraordinary fusion of modern travelogue and ancient knowing.

The Map Was Etched in Ash traces the poet’s footsteps across continents and sacred sites, but the deeper journey unfolds within. Each poem moves between worlds—physical and spiritual—mapping the places we travel to remember who we are.

From Havana’s shadowed altars to Kyoto’s golden temples, from New Mexico’s burning mesas to the quiet ancestral hum of Southern soil, Whitlow transforms every landscape into a portal. Lyrical, haunting, and deeply human, this collection invites readers to walk beside a speaker who is both wanderer and witness—and to discover, along the way, the sacred map etched into their own story.