Rating: 4 Stars
Release Date: May 29, 2023
Format: Ebook
Publisher: University of Iowa Press,Iowa Poetry Prize
About the Book: Part wunderkammer, part grimoire, Maggie Queeney’s In Kind is focused on survival. A chorus of personae, speaking into and through a variety of poetic forms, guide the reader through the aftermath of generations of domestic, gendered, and sexual violence, before designing a transformation and rebirth. These are poems of witness, self-creation, and reclamation.
Review:
I finished this collection a couple of days ago and have not stopped thinking about it since. The pure raw emotion that Maggie was able to write about is truly what poetry is all about. Pushing the envelope the experimental way the poems were laid out, I have no other way of describing it other than, it just made sense! The pull the poems have on the mind is just captivating. Haunting, powerful, and impossible to forget.
The poems I connected with were:
Alterations
What Color You Would Be If You Could Be Any Color
Dead Reckoning
These were the ones that I have not stopped thinking about and will be with me for a long time. Maggie's depiction of surviving trauma and the cost of enduring it in a complicated household is nothing but breathtaking.
Final Thoughts: I would recommend reading these poems out loud, I felt the greatest impact when I was actually able to hear the words aloud. This is a great collection to anyone who has been in the poetry space and would like to explore newer poets.
Disclaimer:
Thank you Netgalley and University of Iowa Press,Iowa Poetry Prize for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.