A mixed white race person's hand holds a book with off-wihte cover and black writing, plus a symbol that reminds me of a bio-hazard esque warning.

Monk Reviews Cruel Fiction by Wendy Trevino

Shout out to Faye for pulling this off the shelf in Penn Book Center (now People’s Books & Culture) and telling me to at the very least read the last poem in the book. After flipping through and seeing critiques of Gloria Anzaldúa, POC identity, anti-Blackness, a poem for Jamie Berrout, and some other things I wonder about but rarely say aloud, I was like yeah ok here is a poetry collection I will definitely read. I am not one to read poetry. I will go to a poetry reading many times more than buy a book of it. So that is to say I enjoyed this one, as a time capsule of many topics floating about in personal conversations and private/socially monitored online spaces. I will save my deeper criticisms for conversations with friends but in general I’m trying to read more of this anti-capitalist cohort’s poetry.

I hope to return to this space at another time and discuss my perpetual unconvinced reaction to most ~anarchist~ writing (if you’ll permit me to group this poetry collection in as such), because at the moment that is still more a reflection of my own feelings of vulnerability to attack, lack of trust, and inadequacy of courage.


Suggestion: Requesting a copy of this book from your local library can thus make it available to others. Or ask your local book store to order it for you. Go to anyone but wicked *maz*n.