A vivid and inspiring poetry collection about what's possible when we heed our instincts and honor our intuition, allowing ourselves to explore new territories of love, pleasure, and peace. First, you must realize you're homesick for all the lives you're not living. Then, you must commit to the road and the rising loneliness, to the sincere thrill of coming apart. So begins Joy Sullivan's "Instructions for Travelling West"—a lush debut collection that examines what happens when we leave home and leap into the deep unknown. Mid-pandemic, Sullivan left the man she planned to marry, sold her house, quit her corporate job, and drove west. This dazzling collection tells that story while illuminating the questions haunting us all: What possible futures lie on the horizon? What happens when we heed the call of furious reinvention? A book for anyone embarking on fresh starts, "Instructions for Travelling West" grapples with loss, loneliness, and belonging. These poems teach us that naming our desire is profound alchemy. Each of us holds the power to set our own course forward. Expansive and heart-opening—exquisite in their specificity, galvanizing in their scope—the poems in "Instructions for Travelling West" speak to the longing that lives within us all. They remind us that joy is not a trick.