Title: Digital Smiles (Release date February 14, 2024)
Author: E. Hughes
Paperback ISBN: 978-1961823150
eBook ISBN: 9781961823167
Genre: Poetry
Item Weight : 3.2 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 0.12 x 9 inches
Explore Authors Mini Review:
“Digital Smiles offers Incisive commentary on the toxic and often destructive nature of social media, in addition to themes about life, death, and nature. Written in free verse and rhyming stanzas by a deft hand with an eye for word play, E. Hughes’ final work of poetry is not only musical, but ends on a high note. Pun intended.” ★★★★★ – Explore Authors Magazine
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About the Book
E. Hughes releases her final book of poetry, Digital Smiles. Digital Smiles is written in both rhyme and free verse. The themes in Digital Smiles offers observations and sometimes criticism of society, how human beings engage each other on social media, the importance of time, death, and our responsibility for the humanity of others.
Critic Reviews:
Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
Digital Smiles by E. Hughes is a thought-provoking collection of poems that offer sharp commentary on a few increasingly relevant social issues. “Birds of Prey” calls out those in the internet forums who prey on people’s fears and insecurities to further their own interests. The titular poem “Digital Smiles” sheds light on those in power who use their influence on the social media landscape to drive us apart and distort the truth to manufacture their own reality. “I’m Little and I’m Scared” is a heartbreaking poem about a child trapped in the middle of a warzone. In “Just Biding My Time,” the narrator longs for freedom from the everyday struggles of life. In “Following the Leader,” the narrator touches upon the relationship between leaders and their followers and wonders if the world wouldn’t be a better place if neither existed.
With this stimulating collection of poems, E. Hughes draws attention to the darker aspects of social media and a few relevant societal issues that the world faces today. Digital Smiles offers readers some much-needed uncomfortable truths, ignoring which might lead to dire consequences for future generations to come. Using both free verse and rhyming stanzas, Hughes provides readers with keen insights into human behavior and modern society that not only seem astute but also very poignant. Each poem is unique and brings something of its own to the larger narrative. I enjoyed every poem, and I think “Meta News” perfectly encapsulates the overall tone of this collection. If you’re someone who enjoys poetry with a healthy dose of meta-commentary, I highly recommend Digital Smiles.
Reviewed by Jon Michael Miller for Readers’ Favorite
Digital Smiles by seasoned author E. Hughes is a collection of twenty-seven one-page (mostly) poems and what she refers to as “Meanderings.” Though the title, the introduction, and some of the poems express a strong objection to the world of digital misinformation and its outright cruelty, Hughes’ verses far transcend this important theme to delve into our fear of and wonder about death and to express her sense of natural beauty. Most of the poems are in structured “free” verse with rhyme and off rhyme. They are generally conversational, but often musical in their flow. In the section called “Meanderings”, the poems become more like adages, quips that encapsulate the ironies of life. Most powerful are the straight-out expressions of the dangers and pain caused by the anonymity of online communications: “Behind every digital smile, a sinister smirk is lurking.” These intriguing poems make it clear that the poet is familiar with the damage of online attacks and misinformation.
But sprinkled among the “Digital Smiles,” E. Hughes delves even more deeply into the traditional poetic themes of life and death. In “The Day Is Nigh,” she appears to be contemplating her own end of life, how quickly time falls through our fingers, even death’s oblivion, as if we were never here. In “Why I Write,” Hughes compares her poems to “puddles of shimmering streams,” an apt metaphor for the poems in this collection, a volume which she states is to be her final publication of poetry (though I hope not). Then, for me, there is one poem— “Saturate”—which stands out above the others in its superb address to the beauty and power of romantic love, the only poem in this collection that sings about this theme: “… sweet against my flesh/rain unto a desert flower.” Digital Smiles is much, much more than a creative and oh-so-true warning about digital age devastation. This book, like all fine poetry, bares an exquisite human soul. (Five Stars)
About the Author: Biography for E. Hughes (1974)
E. Hughes is the author of Time and Multi-Universe: A philosophy of time and time travel (2022) and Sixth Iteration, a science-fiction novel (2021). E. Hughes is a novelist and writer of more than twenty-five years and has over twenty published works in multiple genres from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books to date. Her latest offering is Digital Smiles, her final work of poetry, released in February 2024. Hughes is also scheduled to release Reality Unbound, a nonfiction, and Kissing Henry, a YA graphic novel in 2024. She previously taught publishing and marketing at Madison College from 2012 – 2018 and as an instructor for University of Wisconsin’s Writer’s Institute in 2017, in addition to publishing seminars, courses, and many other projects with writers across the United States and abroad as President and Executive Publisher of a national publishing brand.
Her focus over the years as a hobby has been in animation and film, eventually moving into live action feature films, working with Crystal Diane Stevens of Organized Criminal (click here) as an associate producer. Ms. Hughes began a screenwriting career in earnest, working as a ghost writer for several film projects, eventually launching Screenwritersdaily.com in 2003 as a resource for writers during the height of the screenwriting era. E. Hughes is also an avid gardener, painter, and hobbyist jewelry designer.