A collection of poems about coming into self-knowledge--of fighting for and winning personhood as a woman in the world--this offering from Trinidadian poet Lauren Alleyne grapples with personal experience. The poems form a lyric memoir of the author's life, chronicling a journey that includes coming to terms with violence and loss, celebrating love and connection, and standing witness in the world that shaped that journey. The central poem, "Eighteen," which narrates the aftermath of sexual assault, and another, "Thirty," which addresses the virtues of self-reliance, are representative of several poems of age that both chronicle and disrupt time, looking at the speaker's past as a way to understand the present. These poems are a movement through fracture--both necessary and unwarranted--toward wholeness and transformation. This debut collection introduces a striking new voice in poetry.

Author: Lauren K. Alleyne
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press
Published: 02/01/2014
Pages: 72
Weight: 0.25lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 0.30d
ISBN: 9781845232276

About the Author
Lauren K. Alleyne is an assistant professor and the poet in residence at the University of Dubuque. She lives in Dubuque, Iowa.