Product Details:
◑ Title: THE SIGHS OF WOMEN BECOMING
◑ Author: Leah Angstman
◑ Release Date: Spring 2026
◑ Print ISBN: Coming Soon
◑ Ebook ISBN: Coming Soon
◑ 6 x 9 Perfectbound
◑ Cream Paper, # Pages
◑ Cover Art: TK
◑ Poetry | Free Verse
◑ Subjects: Death, Celebrity Deaths, Mysterious Disappearances, Women, Feminism
◑ Regional Interest: Author from Michigan; author resides in Colorado; book is universal but mostly covers historical U.S. and Europe

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Expected Release: Spring 2026

THE SIGHS OF WOMEN BECOMING is a collection of poetry touching on the lives and personalities of women who died strange, lonely deaths before their time, either by their own hands, or under mysterious, questionable, or harrowing circumstances. While it is riddled with death, this collection is, at closer look, a celebration of feminism, history, what made these fascinating women, for better or worse, truly alive to us, and a lyrical study of why we are obsessed with the ideas of lives cut short, unsolved mysteries, indelible visuals, and how to memorialize the past.

Among the eclectic cast of ladies are Hollywood starlets such as Jayne Mansfield, Natalie Wood, and Jean Harlow; historical royalty like Marie Antoinette, Joan of England, and Anne Boleyn; pioneers and scientists like Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, and Christa McAuliffe; troubled artists ranging from Isadora Duncan to Virginia Woolf to Nancy Spungen; and famous badgirls such as Bonnie Parker, Charlotte Corday, and Eva Braun. From Cleopatra to the D. C. Madam, this collection spans the centuries and depths of the women who’ve fascinated us and brings them back to life, if only for a breath. It is their deaths that entered them into immortality; but it was first their lives that made them mortal.

Content Warning: This book contains sexual assault and graphic depictions of violence, murder, and hate crimes.

Leah Angstman is a transplanted Michigander currently living in Boulder. She is the author of the novel OUT FRONT THE FOLLOWING SEA (Regal House Publishing, 2022), which won 29 awards, including the CIPA Evvy gold for historical fiction, Herb Tabak Choice Award for fiction, and New England Society Book Award for fiction, and was a finalist for numerous awards, including the Reading the West Book Awards for debut and IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards for best new voice in fiction. Her second book, SHOOT THE HORSES FIRST (Kernpunkt Press, 2023), was the Indie Author Project’s Colorado adult fiction winner and IPNE overall Fiction of the Year winner, and has won 23 awards, including the Shorts Award for Americana fiction, Next Generation Indie Book Award gold for short stories, and National Indie Excellence Awards Juror’s Choice and gold for short stories, as well as being named a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Awards for best western short fiction, Reading the West Book Awards for fiction, and Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Leah’s third book, the novel FALCON IN THE DIVE (Regal House Publishing, 2024), was recently honored with 9 awards, including the Next Generation Indie Book Awards gold for second novel and being shortlisted for the Hawthorne Prize and CIPA Evvy for both historical fiction and thrillers/suspense. Leah’s latest novel, THE ONLY WAY TO CHEAT A HANGMAN (Past Imperfect, 2026), was a finalist in the Faulkner–Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for novels, and Laramie Book Awards for Americana and pioneer fiction. Her first poetry collection, REVERSE MIGRATION: NOT COMING HOME (Augustan Age, 2025), was honored with 9 awards, including the Loudoun Library Foundation Poetry Award and being a finalist for the Cowles Poetry Book Prize, Richard Snyder Memorial Prize, Able Muse Book Award judged by Charles Martin; and Saluda River Prize for Poetry judged by poet Ray McManus and South Carolina poet laureate Marjory Heath Wentworth. Leah’s second collection of poetry is THE SIGHS OF WOMEN BECOMING (Augustan Age, 2026). She is the founder and executive editor of Boulder-based Alternating Current Press and The Coil online magazine, and she copyedits for Mother Jones. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Nashville Review. You can find her at leahangstman.com and on social media as @leahangstman.