Book cover of Kate Sweeney’s first published poetry book Submitted photo

A former Jamestown area resident has published her first poetry book.

Kate Sweeney Postle, who graduated from Southwestern High School and currently resides in Florida with her husband and two children, published her book, “Worrisome Creatures,” in May through Madville Publishing. Postle has degrees from Binghamton University, University of Florida, Kansas State University and Westminster College. She is currently an English professor at Keiser University in New Port Richey, Fla.

Postle described her book as a collection of failings of the body.

“It looks at the failings of the body, of history, trauma, and what we can learn from the people who came before us,” Postle said. “I began writing it while I was getting my MFA in Florida.”

Postle’s book is broken into sections, focusing on worrisome humans, humans and nature and complicated family relationships.

“It’s all from the experiences of other people,” Postle said. “They’re stories taken from friends or family or things I saw on the news, not personal experience.”

Postle first became interested in poetry while at Westminster when taking a poetry class and a professor told her she should do more.

“I can remember the first poem that I ever read that I connected to,” Postle said. “I listened to my professor’s words and continued to do poetry up to today.”

Postle said her current poetry book has been about 10 years in the making, beginning as a thesis for her MFA. She continued to work on it during her PhD, but abandoned the project for a while when her kids were born.

“I came back to it later, and wondered about trying to get it published,” Postle said. “It was not originally written with the intent of being a book.”

While Postle focuses mostly on writing poetry, she has also written a substantial part of her memoir, though has abandoned that project for the moment. Postle also works with the nonprofit, Keep St Pete Lit, and sometimes does freelance editing of poetry for friends.

Postle’s book Worrisome Creatures is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Madville Publishing’s website.