to linger on hot coals  was born from the imaginations and lives of two mothers.  Artist writer, Stephanie Paige Cole, and poet-teacher, Catherine Bayly, crafted their brain child in memory of their first daughters, Madeline and Sophie.  Both girls were stillborn at full term, and the experience of mothering their memories became paramount in the writing and daily lives of their mothers.  As the years passed, the need to mother them has changed, but the desire to keep them at the center of Cole and Bayly's work has remained.    This book represents a multitude of women's voices, at various stages of grief-mothering.  Within the pages you'll find cerebral iterations of the infinite ripple effects of grief and the raw visceral howls of grief's earliest days.  Cole and Bayly hope the book will take part in an ongoing complex conversation about motherhood and work--and that it will speak to the hearts and minds of those mothers who've lost.     to linger on hot coals  features a beautiful and painfully honest foreword by MISS founder, Joanne Cacciatore PhD, and an introduction written by the authors.  Those writings will hopefully serve as a guide to the reader, as she or he navigates grief's roiling and ever changing waters. "Raw, evocative, compelling. A heartfelt tumble down the rabbit hole of child loss into a world that is frequently hidden, often taboo but ultimately needs to be exposed. to linger on hot coals shines a light on the reality of the "other" family tree - the one with gnarled tree trunks and missing branches that so many mothers invisibly carry every day. A collective of hearts and souls that beat even in the ashes, and breathe life into the unseen."- Pia Dorer, Producer/Director/Editor It's Not All Black and White "Discussing to linger on hot coals begs one to continue the metaphor. These are poems forged in the fires of pain, grief and beauty. They burn with the truth of detail, making poetical the unspeakable experience of losing a child. To gaze into these flames is to find solace, connection and the authentic voices of survival and inspiration."-Vanessa Gorman, Filmmaker Losing Layla "The poems in to linger on hot coals are like the babies who inspired them: small but profoundly significant, and imprinting those they touch with both delicious sweetness and heartbreaking pain. They will speak to those whose grief is new as well as to those whose losses have receded in time but not in memory, as well as to counselors, medical professionals, and allies of bereaved families. A breathtakingly beautiful collection." - Janel Atlas, Editor They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth "Most of the time, we consider grief ugly, and most of the time it is. But, sometimes you find something that moves that kind of loss beyond horror to something clear and pristinely honest - beautiful ... Stephanie Paige Cole and Catherine Bayly have collected a deeply beautiful gift of poetry in to linger on hot coals." - Melissa Miles McCarter, Editor Joy, Interrupted: An Anthology of Motherhood and Loss "This sacred collection of soul cries left me completely speechless. I wish to God this had been around after our loss. It would have given my heart a map to navigate the pitfalls of my grief - that too often sent me soaring and crashing in a million different directions. The words are raw, and they cut open old wounds, but they educate the world what losing a child is really like - a never-ending walk in search of the one you lost."-Franchesca Cox, Editor Still Standing Magazine We hope you will use this book as a tool for coming to grips with the power of loss (and perhaps love) over our writers' lives.   Their impossible desire to create sacred things, raw and polished, out of mourning is at the heart of the journey.  We hope this collection will help us all come nearer to peace with our grieving and the roles our children play in the stories we create. Contributors: Catherine Bayly, Joanne Cacciatore, Stephanie Paige Cole, Carly Dudley, Tara Hart, Sherokee Ilse, Kara LC Jones, Devany LeDrew, Amy McCarter, Beth Morey, Anne Morris, Hannah Logan Morris, Laura Seftel, Angie Yingst Stephanie Paige Cole  has been writing ever since she learned how to spell, but never as ferociously as after the death of her firstborn child in January 2007.  Born in New York City, Stephanie now resides among the farms of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with her husband and their three sweet sons.  She works at an art gallery as a writer and occasionally exhibits her own paintings, sculptures and photography.  Stephanie is the author of  Still: a collection of honest artwork & writings from the heart of a grieving mother  and the founder of Sweet Pea Project, a nonprofit organization that offers comfort, support and gentle guidance to families who have experienced the death of a baby. Catherine Bayly  has hungrily read and written poems all her life.  And writing became her constant companion and vessel afte