EL CERRITO — Local poet Tess Taylor has recently released her fourth book, had one of its poems published in the New York Times and wrote an opinion piece for CNN about the significance of reading literature during a global quarantine.
With hair salons shut down during the novel coronavirus shelter order, she also gave herself a haircut at home. The release of “Rift Zone,” a new collection that Taylor calls “poems for precarious times,” was at once timely and ominous.
“I planned a pandemic to go with the book launch,” she joked during an interview while sheltering in place at home in El Cerrito.