Shaina Phenix

TO BE NAMED SOMETHING ELSE

University of Arkansas Press (Miller Williams Poetry Prize) lending your bloodto four babieswith mountain mouthsstitched in a legionof things misplaced and found. —from “Lucille” How it began: I don’t think I set out to write a book at first. I was, however, writing with commitments in mind. I was committed to poems as official documents of histories, experiences, and the voices of Black women/femmes, folks of my blood, other kinds of kin, and not kin. I would write our names next to living things like trees, dirt, natural water, hair growing from our scalps, the sun, and God, so that we may live. I would transcribe our secrets, inside jokes, rituals, recipes, songs, stoop talks, and testimonies. I would write to interact with a set of pasts for fellowship and…

You're reading a preview of

Poets & Writers (Digital) - 1 Issue, January/February 2024

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.