You didn’t need to understand the intricacies of a relationship to feel the weight of those final words.

A project by Isabella Giancarlo, “Eat Your Heart Out” has been getting a lot of attention this week—and for good reason. On her website, Giancarlo describes the project as “…a series of words remembered from break-ups reimagined as something sweet.” We spoke with Giancarlo recently about her fascinating and tender medium.

What was the catalyst for “Eat Your Heart Out”? Had it been a long time in the works or was it created on a whim?

For me, a loss of appetite typically accompanies the end of a relationship. This is always particularly distressing, as I’m a voracious eater and cook.  After a break-up last spring, seven words sat with me that I couldn’t shake. I thought about ways to reclaim that phrase. How could I sweeten words that initially took my appetite away?

I asked friends for their heartbreak quotes and felt those familiar pangs. You didn’t need to understand the intricacies of a relationship to feel the weight of those final words. I’ve taken the last few months to collect my favorite quotes, decide which desserts would best accompany each quote, and finalize my aesthetic vision.

The incorporation of prose onto pastries is an interesting medium. What would you like the viewer to glean when seeing bittersweet messages superimposed on something comforting?

I hope the project says: Go ahead. Gorge. Engage with the uncomfortable, sticky feelings of a broken heart that are so often dismissed as self-indulgent.

Are these musings all your own, or are they a collection from friends and strangers?

Quotes came from my own experiences, those of close friends and, now, I’ve received a flurry from strangers via the submission form on my website.  It’s been humbling to have people willing to share their vulnerable parts and it has made the process feel even more intimate and collaborative.

Do you hope to expand “Eat Your Heart Out” and/or do you have other projects planned?

I’m flirting with the idea of doing large-scale prints and/or a small book.  I will definitely continue taking submissions and baking for the project, as well as experimenting with GIFs.

To submit your own quote from a breakup, head over to Giancarlo’s submission form. You just might end up becoming her new muse.

Gold Line Press recently shared their 2015 selections for both the poetry and fiction chapbook competitions. Among the group of finalists was Sara Schaff, with her chapbook Incomplete Like Her.

Incomplete Like Her features two short stories–”When I Was Young and Swam to Cuba” and “Marie and Parker Threw a Party”–both of which appear in Say Something Nice About Me, Schaff’s forthcoming short story collection which we will publish later this fall.

Head over to Gold Press to read about the other finalists of both poetry and prose.

In November of last year, we interviewed Lisbeth Redfield, the Literary Arts Manager of Pen and Brush, about the organization’s venture into publishing. Back in October, for the launch of their new imprint, they published two e-books—one, a book of prose; the other, a debut poetry collection by Lauren Amalia Redding. This Thursday, February 11th from 7:00-9:00 PM, come see their idea put into fruition with a conversation between Redding and Augury Editor Kate Angus, who helped curate P&B’s literary endeavor.

For more information about the event and P&B’s mission, head over to their website.

Lauren Amalia Redding is an artist and poet living and working in Astoria, Queens, New York. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and her M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art in New York, New York. She has exhibited her artwork from Chicago and New York to Tokyo, with pieces in private collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Redding has also been featured as one of “Today’s Masters: Artists Making Their Mark” by Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. In October 2015, she will be an artist in residence at the Florence School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy, housed in Giorgio Vasari’s old studio. Though Redding works primarily as a visual artist, she first expressed herself by writing, and has been writing in secret for ten years. This is the first time any of her poetry has been published.