REVIEWS

PREY

 

In her third book, prey, Jeanann Verlee examines predatory relationships from childhood onward. Drawing parallels between human and non-human predators, the poems collected here strive to illuminate the trauma of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse—exploring what it is to become prey.

✴ First runner-up, Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award

“This book is fierce, ferocious, feminist. It left me breathless!”
—Claudia Cortese, author of Wasp Queen and Blood Metals

"Verlee...hold[s] past predators accountable amid a withering critique of toxic masculinity...and her depiction of the cycle of abuse is as illuminating as it is unsettling."
—Publishers Weekly

“This book of poetry is absolutely essential…Verlee is unflinching. Buy this book.”
—Seema Reza, author of A Constellation of Half-Lives and When the World Breaks Open

“I read this after the Kavanaugh hearings. It almost felt like it was written specifically for that, which just goes to show how the patriarchy and the effects of toxic masculinity are ever-present in our lives. I felt heard, I felt understood, I felt empowered. This book is brilliant, beautiful, painful, and so fucking necessary.”
—Anne Champion, author of The Good Girl is Always a Ghost, Reluctant Mistress ++

“The scripture of the unkillable woman is to conjure and to resurrect and to stare into the abyss of memory and say, Unspell me. Unspell me.” 
         —Dominique Christina, author of Anarcha Speaks, This is Woman's Work ++

 

☰

SAID THE MANIC TO THE MUSE

 

From dangerous trysts and barroom brawls to "grief-induced psychosis," Jeanann Verlee's second book, Said the Manic to the Muse, takes a deeper, more focused look at the erratic, whimsical, ominous, and sometimes perilous ways bipolar disorder functions. These poems recount the year she lost everything, including her mind.

“Here we have pure courage and craft…this book, in many ways, becomes an elegy to the selves, and an ode to fought-for sight.”
         —Aracelis Girmay, author of The Black Maria, Kingdom Animalia, Teeth ++

“In her second collection, Jeanann Verlee continues her searing exploration of the body as a place of danger and impossible resilience…[she] knows that the act of writing is never removed from the act of living in a world bent on extinguishing its most vital voices. As such, this is poetry at its most urgent and courageous calibers.”
         —Ocean Vuong, author of Time is a Mother, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Night Sky with Exit Wounds ++

"Startlingly original."
            —Adam Falkner, author of The Willies, Adoption and Ten for Faheem

“Verlee’s genius is that whatever formal pattern the poem demands, the wild excess never lets up, such that even the poems that seem formally tidy on the page seem likely to run amuck. An unsettling, riveting read.”
            —Janet McAdams, editor, Kenyon Review

“Say it again: Gotdamn!”
        —John Murillo, author of Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry and Up Jump the Boogie

☰

RACING HUMMINGBIRDS

 

Jeanann Verlee's award-winning debut poetry collection, Racing Hummingbirds, examines, critiques, and at times delights in one woman's navigation of bipolar disorder and her struggle to maintain her own humanity. Addressing gender, sex, race, poverty, grief, and survival with stark intimacy, these poems cross boundaries and reclaim hope.

✴ Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal

“One of the strongest poetry collections I've ever read.”
—Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women, Hunger, Bad Feminist ++

“As visceral and searing as it is compassionate and forgiving.”
—Small Press Reviews

“Fierce and formidable, Jeanann Verlee is poised to make an indelible mark—much like a razor slashing silk—on what's become a comfortably placid poetic landscape. Her unflinching and uncompromising stanzas will change the way you move through the world.”
         —Patricia Smith, author of Unshuttered, Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, Blood Dazzler ++

“Besides writhing with racket and heart and wisdom, these poems bear witness to our real, difficult lives. They neither turn away, nor suggest grace isn’t part of the story. No. They sing of the real in its ugly and glory. This is an honest book, and we are lucky to have it.”
         —Ross Gay, author of Inciting Joy, Be Holding, The Book of Delights ++

“If risk is the main ingredient of a true masterpiece then Verlee's Racing Hummingbirds claims the title of masterpiece countless times with both poise & puncture, poem after poem in this stampede of a debut collection...I want to become a teacher just so I can make this required reading. I want to anonymously mail copies of it to anyone I've ever wanted to kiss. I want to wallpaper my bedroom with the pages of this book.” 
        —Angel Nafis, author of Black Girl Mansion

“Racing Hummingbirds is a masterful first collection.”
        —The Legendary

“It’s poetry with its teeth bared…completely and unapologetically naked.”
        —Megan Scarborough, PANK Magazine