The Hatter's Crown: A Journey Through Wonderland and Shadow

By Michael Hansen

This is not a fairy tale.

This is a war journal stitched with poetry, shadow work, madness, and survival.

Thrown into the streets at thirteen and carrying the scars of trauma, Michael Hansen takes readers through a Wonderland unlike any other?a surreal inner world shaped by abandonment, loss, and the fierce reclamation of self. Through poetic chapters that mirror the stages of healing, The Hatter's Crown invites readers into a landscape of fractured mirrors, tea-stained grief, phoenix fire, and defiant hope.

Told in lyrical, unflinching verse, this collection is both a memoir and a myth, where the Mad Hatter is more than a character?he is the shadow self, the survivor, the king forged in ruin.

For anyone who has battled with identity, faced childhood trauma, or walked the edge of madness and come out changed?this book is for you.

Step through the door.

Welcome to Wonderland.

Michael Hansen is a poet whose work explores survival, self-acceptance, and the beauty hidden within madness. Born in Colorado and shaped by adversity from an early age, he has transformed hardship into powerful storytelling, weaving personal experience into every line he writes. Now residing in Iowa, Michael crafts poetry that speaks to the lost, the dreamers, and the resilient. His debut collection, The Hatter's Crown: A Journey Through Wonderland and Shadow, is a testament to the healing found in confronting pain, embracing one's fractured parts, and daring to create meaning from chaos.