“This is the kind of poetry collection I ache for. Shaina Phenix’s invigorating debut alchemizes the properties of human spirit and generational circumstance to challenge perceptions about the contemporary American Black femme experience. Through a process of transmutation, the poems blend the personal with cultural criticism in a way that feels sacred, holy—like something a priestess-type could manage. Phenix refuses to forget from where and whom she comes. From biblical verse to new verse, poetic form to poetic deconstruction, in lyric and shape, this collection feels like a masterfully creative study of artistry, politic, inheritance, and sexuality in Black American Lit.” —Faylita Hicks, author of HoodWitch
Explore Phenix’s debut collection here.
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple
