Excerpts from a Burned Letter

Joelle Barron

Excerpts from a Burned Letter
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Harbour Publishing
Country
CA
Published
2 January 2025
Pages
96
ISBN
9780889714700

Excerpts from a Burned Letter

Joelle Barron

Award-winning writer Joelle Barron looks back at history through queer eyes in their second poetry collection.

Excerpts from a Burned Letter places the experiences of historical figures and fictional characters in modern contexts-and makes their queerness explicit. This collection highlights the circular nature of time, demonstrating how even in a post-marriage-equality world, queer experiences and queer histories still face erasure.

From the perspective of a single, modern speaker, each poem is haunted by a fictional or historical queer couple, connecting ancestors to their descendants and underlining the ancientness of being queer. The book also explores themes of religion, disability, motherhood, birth, and the experience of being a queer child. The poems zoom in and out; gross, visceral depictions of bodies and their functions stand beside poems that call out the hypocrisies of religion in both its extreme and subtle forms. These poems describe the experience of being a queer person in the present day-writing the queer history of the future.

When searching for stories of themselves in history books, queer people are often met withdenial and resistance. Excerpts from a Burned Letter provides explicit acknowledgement whereit didn't exist before: You were here. You live on.

Order online and we’ll ship when available (2 January 2025)

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.