[{"id":81376,"date":"2026-09-23T14:51:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/?p=81376"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:51:39","slug":"write-into-the-contradiction-by-katerina-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/write-into-the-contradiction-by-katerina-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"WRITE INTO THE CONTRADICTION by Katerina Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Writing Tip by Katerina Canyon
\n<\/strong><\/span>WRITE INTO CONTRADICTION<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

As a poet, I find excitement in writing into contradictions. Race is one example. Black and white may appear to be a simple binary, but if we examine those distinctions closely and write honestly into the discomfort, history, assumptions, and tensions they contain, we can arrive somewhere far more complicated and interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do not write around contradictions; dig into them.<\/span><\/p>\n

If there is someone in your life who makes you feel love and anger at once, write about that. If you are someone who laughs through grief, examine that. If something can be both beautiful and terrible, resist the urge to choose one interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contradiction creates tension, and tension creates energy on the page. The tension is where the real work begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Katerina Canyon<\/b><\/a> is a poet living in Harlem, New York. Her multiple collections include <\/span>Surviving Home<\/span><\/i> (2021, Kelsay Books) and <\/span>Changing the Lines<\/span><\/i> (2017). Her work explores race, memory, survival, and the tensions shaping both personal and collective experience. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and serves as Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more from Cleaver\u2019s\u00a0Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Writing Tip by Katerina Canyon WRITE INTO CONTRADICTION As a poet, I find excitement in writing into contradictions. Race is one example. Black and white may appear to be a simple binary, but if we examine those distinctions closely and write honestly into the discomfort, history, assumptions, and tensions they contain, we can arrive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":53688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19873,19686],"tags":[20423],"class_list":["post-81376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-genre-tips","category-writing-tips","tag-katerina-canyon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"\nWRITE INTO THE CONTRADICTION by Katerina Canyon • Cleaver Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/write-into-the-contradiction-by-katerina-canyon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WRITE INTO THE CONTRADICTION by Katerina Canyon • Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Writing Tip by Katerina Canyon WRITE INTO CONTRADICTION As a poet, I find excitement in writing into contradictions. Race is one example. 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AND CRAFT: BALANCING THE DELICATE DANCE by Shanti Chandrasekhar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\">A Writing Tip by Shanti Chandrasekhar<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">CREATIVITY AND CRAFT: BALANCING THE DELICATE DANCE<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Why do we write, really?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For almost all writers, the answer is because we have to, because we love words, sentences, language. Because when we don\u2019t, we feel like we\u2019re existing, not living.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh, that unmistakable pull of art!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That pull is what leads us to a first draft. You revel in putting one word after another, in the musicality of the sentences, in simply telling a story. The critic in you might point you in another direction or say it\u2019s not in you to do this. You tell that voice to shut up and flash a smile at your muse. For now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, when you find something isn\u2019t working, you listen to the critic, and think about craft, about what you\u2019ve learned in writing workshops, perhaps. I\u2019ve always loved attending writing workshops and classes, and every time, I learn something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More often than not, however, I find myself not following some rules \u2014 mainly, plot-related rules more applicable to genre fiction (the protagonist striving and failing to overcome obstacles, for example). Not that I deliberately ignore such rules. They don\u2019t seem to fit into my stories, which deal with the main character\u2019s internal conflict and emotions rather than external, plot-driven situations. Some of my stories could be deemed vignettes with lyrical prose, and some a hybrid of fiction and creative nonfiction. I can\u2019t help but write what comes naturally to me. Perhaps it\u2019s detrimental to getting my work published. But I know when I force plot-related craft elements, my work does not sound authentic. And if a story doesn\u2019t sound authentic, what are the chances of getting it out in the world? A paradox, for sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About a decade ago, a mentor said to me, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>Never force your story to be what it\u2019s not<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Another instructor wrote an article about how focusing too much on craft kills creativity, and the summarized conclusion reminded us to <\/span><b>not<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to try to do everything we\u2019ve been taught. I felt like I\u2019d slipped a sixty-pound backpack off my shoulders. In an online interview, a writer said, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>Write what you want to\u2026create your own genre if it doesn\u2019t exist<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Encouraging pieces of advice for a writer like me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writing what I love and how I want to write is all wonderful \u2014 so long as my story is coherent. That\u2019s when craft commands its presence, like it or not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I need an arc, a shift in the character\u2019s perspective, an epiphany, if not a resolution. Without these, my story wouldn\u2019t be a story. This is not something I need to consciously work on with short stories. But I struggle with flash fiction, sometimes ending the story without a proper arc, or worse, taking it beyond the ending. If I haven\u2019t realized this and fixed it, an editor\u2019s note praising the writing but rejecting the story wakes me up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like me, if you find yourself resisting the craft rules you\u2019ve learned, write what you want, and trust the way it comes to you. Then revise it. Depending on what you write (literary fiction or a specific genre), how much you lean into your creative instincts versus craft rules might differ. Regardless, you merge the two, both aspects fitting together, each serving as a fulcrum, making it all balanced and beautiful. In the final draft, make sure of two important things: your story is a story, with a shift of some kind, and that it\u2019s narrated in your unique, authentic voice. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>That<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> would be a work of art.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"81187\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/creativity-and-craft-balancing-the-delicate-dance-by-shanti-chandrasekhar\/shanti_chandrasekhar-headshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?fit=1720%2C1720&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1720,1720\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Shanti_Chandrasekhar headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-81187 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Shanti Chandrasekhar\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Shanti_Chandrasekhar-headshot.jpg?w=1720&ssl=1 1720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Shanti Chandrasekhar <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a Maryland-based writer whose words have appeared in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>The Sunlight<\/i><\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>Press<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>Bright Flash Literary Review, Literary Mama<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i>The Washington Post<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and elsewhere. She has studied writing at Iowa State University, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Masters Review Workshop, AWP Writer-to-Writer Mentorship Program, and continues to learn. Shanti Chandrasekhar strives to strike a balance between her old-fashioned, language-focused writing and the contemporary demands of storytelling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more from Cleaver\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/writing-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Writing Tip by Shanti Chandrasekhar CREATIVITY AND CRAFT: BALANCING THE DELICATE DANCE Why do we write, really? For almost all writers, the answer is because we have to, because we love words, sentences, language. Because when we don\u2019t, we feel like we\u2019re existing, not living. Oh, that unmistakable pull of art! That pull is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":53688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19873,19826,19689,19686],"tags":[20422],"class_list":["post-81186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-genre-tips","category-fiction-tips","category-revising","category-writing-tips","tag-shanti-chandrasekhar"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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TO SELF: A DEVELOPMENTAL DRAFT, by Andrea Caswell"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\">A Writing Tip by Andrea Caswell<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">GIFT TO SELF: A DEVELOPMENTAL DRAFT<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first draft of anything we write\u2026cue a collective groan! Those first drafts can be a real mess, not because we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing, but because creating something from our partially-formed thoughts is a messy business. First drafts famously earn a bad rap\u2014we all know the adjectives hurled at them. Regardless of how you\u2019d describe an initial attempt, the fact remains that you must have a draft in order to have a story (or essay or poem or chapter) to revise. Without that hot-mess of an early draft, all you\u2019ve got is an idea unexpressed. A thought bubble floating above your head, possibly about to float away. Sometimes we\u2019re afraid to ruin a good idea by putting it on paper and turning it into excrement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In her wonderful essay \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.writersandartists.co.uk\/advice\/getaway-car\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Getaway Car<\/a>,\u201d Ann Patchett likens reading that first draft to seeing all the beautiful butterflies you\u2019ve crushed. As a writer, you\u2019re probably guilty of killing a few butterflies in your day. One time, a story lived in my head for months, loosely about a woman who lost her kid\u2019s dog. When I finally wrote a first draft, the story wasn\u2019t nearly as interesting or compelling as it had been in my daydreams. I had no idea where it began or what her real problem was! No sense of the setting\/context or what should happen! That thin draft was so discouraging because I\u2019d placed too many expectations on the work too soon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, to soften the blow of a reality-ridden first draft, I craft stories and essays using a more gentle approach: a developmental draft.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How is that different from a first draft? Partly, it\u2019s a matter of perception, a framing issue. If a piece starts as a developmental draft, I have no expectation or hope that it will \u201cwork\u201d or be more than a set of ideas I\u2019m tossing around like a disheveled salad. This gives me permission to write more freely, to try out unusual ideas, and to problem-solve in unexpected ways instead of applying craft pressure to nascent characters and plot, etc. In a developmental draft, I write a lot of \u201cnotes to self,\u201d leaving a trail of imaginative breadcrumbs regarding what I\u2019m thinking about this option or that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The result is, instead of a first draft that seems like a weak attempt (such as my lost dog story), I have a document that\u2019s been given room to roam and is super-charged with ideas that wouldn\u2019t have fit in a more concerted first draft. Like the mythical \u201cdrawer time\u201d often prescribed for our work, the content of a developmental draft tends to percolate and feed on itself, which expands your available options in a future first draft. Some of those freewheeling fits of fancy will belong on the cutting room floor or become necessary parts of other stories. Either way, by the time you sit down to write that first draft, you will be ready.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"58100\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/a-craft-chat-with-monique-d-clark-by-andrea-caswell\/andrea-caswell-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/andrea-caswell-1.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"400,400\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"andrea-caswell-1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/andrea-caswell-1.jpeg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-58100 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/andrea-caswell-1.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Andrea Caswell\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/andrea-caswell-1.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/andrea-caswell-1.jpeg?w=400&ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Andrea Caswell<\/strong> holds an MFA in fiction and nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She\u2019s a Senior Fiction Editor at\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cleaver Magazine<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0and is on the faculty of Cleaver Workshops. Andrea is the Creative Director of Write in Paris retreats (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.writeinparis.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.writeinparis.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Her work appears or is forthcoming in\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tampa Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Coachella Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">River Teeth<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Normal School<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atticus Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Columbia Journal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and others. She\u2019s an alum of the Sewanee Writers\u2019 Conference and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For more information, please visit\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.andreacaswell.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.andreacaswell.com<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.writeinparis.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.writeinparis.com<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more from Cleaver\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/writing-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Writing Tip by Andrea Caswell GIFT TO SELF: A DEVELOPMENTAL DRAFT The first draft of anything we write\u2026cue a collective groan! Those first drafts can be a real mess, not because we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing, but because creating something from our partially-formed thoughts is a messy business. First drafts famously earn a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":53688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19873,19686],"tags":[14886],"class_list":["post-81179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-genre-tips","category-writing-tips","tag-andrea-caswell"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Andrea Caswell: Gift To Self, A Developmental Draft • Writing Tips<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Andrea Caswell holds an MFA in fiction and nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. 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WRITING MY FATHER INTO THE FUTURE, A Poetry Craft Essay by Lauren Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\"><b>A Poetry Craft Essay by Lauren Camp<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><b>ON WRITING MY FATHER INTO THE FUTURE<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve never intended to write a book, but then a situation appears \u2014 a month at the Grand Canyon or Alzheimer\u2019s or the next large thing. Over and over, I write of where I am.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the midst of our ordinary busy lives, my sister and I planned a celebration for my father\u2019s 80<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> birthday. A few days before, at his home in Philadelphia, I started to see how strange his habits were. Awkward with unmeasurable breaks. He looked at my sister and me with our differences of appearances, styles, cadences, and energies, and said, \u201cWhich one are you?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Danger flooded in as we made sense of the slipping of his memory and where the leaks were worst. There was hardly time for sadness. After the party, we moved fast to ensure his safety from our homes states away. With each complication in elder care \u2014 insurance, the choice of a facility or aides, medications, an understanding of how to speak to someone who is forgetting \u2014 I wrote. The angle of his shoulders as he lost track of how to hold himself upright. His panics. His twices and thrices. Each haphazard, but sufficient, moment was a way to build strength for the day-to-day details.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I could\u2019ve made excuses for why there wasn\u2019t time to write these things down, but if I didn\u2019t capture them then, there would never be another opportunity. Besides \u2014 I wasn\u2019t writing poems. I was daughtering while catching what I knew would disappear. I was a guest at his reality and a shadow alone. My scribbles and phone notes gave me a purpose, between screaming at banks because I was on the lost side of his logins, scrambling to gather money to pay his bills, and every other small and large urgent issue to deal with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, as I built the lines out into poems, it felt appropriate and necessary to keep them unresolved, with a sort of distended, convoluted narrative. This was different from previous work I\u2019d done. I didn\u2019t see it as experimental writing, but writing that matched the situation I was in. Each poem was my way of smuggling a bit of my dad into the future. In the stanzas and poems, he was alive \u2014 and yes, confused, but also sweet. I could hear him, see him, hold his hand. My complicated father, who I loved and who I had had years of terrible disagreements with, disappeared a little more each time I saw or spoke to him. I was realizing that love looked like all the small actions: him on the dance floor, him organizing his top drawer. His affair with the woman across the hall, the way he charmed her, though he could not remember her name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writing of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease meant I was circling and writing into an unfastened sort of absence. Nothing was exact. It had matter and also spyholes through which I could see what had fallen off. Each poem in what became my book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is Is Enough <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lived in the present with its last chances. I couldn\u2019t write the poems to be clear and precise because life wasn\u2019t that. Each day and venture were built in that moment by what my father could understand and manage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My father was gentled by dementia. He had forgotten his grudges, demands, and the need to control. His financial concerns were passed on to me, his power of attorney, to handle. Because his brain was emptying, he could finally relax after years of worry and objections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I tell my writing students to be \u201cfiercely specific\u201d in their details, which for me was easy this time because I wanted to hoard my father\u2019s statements and behavior. As a witness, nothing was tragic. Nothing was more worthy than anything else. I wrote what I was perceiving. I set my feelings to the side and grabbed at each peculiar thing. That these poems had less order was not disordered. It was truth. There won\u2019t be another book about my father. When my father died, I wrote the obituary and then I wrote a poem about the writing of it. Then, I put down my pen and stopped.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"81161\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/on-writing-my-father-into-the-future-a-poetry-craft-essay-by-lauren-camp\/lauren-camp-headshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?fit=569%2C569&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"569,569\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Lauren Camp headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?fit=569%2C569&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-81161 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Lauren Camp\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lauren-Camp-headshot.jpg?w=569&ssl=1 569w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><strong>Lauren Camp<\/strong> is the author of nine books, most recently <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is Is Enough<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Texas Review Press, 2026) and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Old Sky<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024), which grew out of her experience as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Other honors include an Academy of American Poets fellowship, a Dorset Prize, and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award and Adrienne Rich Award. Her poems have appeared in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Nation, Kenyon Review, Poem-a-Day, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beloit Poetry Journal, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Arabic. Lauren Camp served as New Mexico Poet Laureate (2022-25).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/craft-essays\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Craft Essays<\/a>\u00a0on Cleaver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Poetry Craft Essay by Lauren Camp ON WRITING MY FATHER INTO THE FUTURE I\u2019ve never intended to write a book, but then a situation appears \u2014 a month at the Grand Canyon or Alzheimer\u2019s or the next large thing. Over and over, I write of where I am. In the midst of our ordinary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1100,1101],"tags":[20421],"class_list":["post-81160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft-essays","category-poetry-craft-essays","tag-lauren-camp"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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FRAGMENTS I HAVE SHORED by Jason Irwin, reviewed by Emily Webber"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\">Nonfiction by Jason Irwin, reviewed by Emily Webber<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">THESE FRAGMENTS I HAVE SHORED (<a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/these-fragments-i-have-shored-a-memoir-jason-irwin\/6317b5e153b3b355?ean=9781627206396&bkshp-astro=t\">Apprentice House<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Jason Irwin\u2019s memoir, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These Fragments I Have Shored,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reached me, I was tempted to set it aside; I already had a massive to-be-read pile. But I decided to read the first page before adding it to the stack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cJay! Jay!\u201d my mother howled from the back bedroom. I woke and ran to find her coiled in a fetal position at the foot of her bed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou better get this body out of here,\u201d she commanded. \u201cI died an hour ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was about to reach out to her, to brush her hair away from her face, and try to calm her. Instead, I pulled back and stood staring at what she\u2019d become. Purple veins, like dried-up tributaries, spread across the sallow topography of her chest. The twin peaks of her clavicle threatened to puncture her skin with each labored breath. Her dark doe eyes held me in their watery gaze, boring into me, feral and pleading.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d I snapped. \u201cYou\u2019re not dead!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instantly I realized how bothered I sounded, how annoyed. My mother was dying and all I cared about was getting enough sleep. (1)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"81003\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/these-fragments-i-have-shored-by-jason-irwin-reviewed-by-emily-webber\/these-fragments-cover\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?fit=600%2C928&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,928\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"these fragments cover\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?fit=600%2C928&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-81003\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?resize=325%2C503&ssl=1\" alt=\"THESE FRAGMENTS I HAVE SHORED by Jason Irwin, reviewed by Emily Webber\" width=\"325\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?resize=259%2C400&ssl=1 259w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?w=600&ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/>From that powerful opening, Irwin weaves together two central narratives. He balances the month he spends caring for his mother, Audrey, as she dies of cancer against his own childhood struggles with life-threatening birth defects, when his mother advocated for him through many office visits, hospital stays, and procedures. They have a genuine closeness and friendship, calling themselves the crime-fighting duo. Yet Irwin also shows that they cannot fully understand or help each other with everything. Irwin\u2019s mother struggles with her desire to remain independent and the long-lasting trauma from her own childhood. While Irwin must navigate a new role as a caregiver after gaining his independence without feeling like he is abandoning his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout his childhood, Irwin\u2019s mother was his advocate, companion, and friend during endless medical appointments, all while raising him as a single mother. But they both also craved independence. For Irwin, this meant living independently despite his health challenges and figuring out how to navigate a world in which he\u2019s different from others. His mother, on the other hand, desperately wanted to stay in her apartment without assistance even when poverty and sickness made it impossible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suddenly, because of his mother\u2019s diagnosis, they find themselves living together again. Rather than flattening their lives into medical tragedy, Irwin presents his mother in full detail. He honors her resilience but also captures her prickly nature: her irritation with doctors, her persistent smoking, her refusal to indulge bedside visitors. He doesn\u2019t turn himself into a saint either, confessing the ways he lashed out at others and his impatience with being a caregiver.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A practicing poet, Irwin borrows the memoir\u2019s title from T.S. Eliot\u2019s “<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/47311\/the-waste-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Waste Land<\/span><\/a>“<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: \u201cThese fragments I have shored against my ruins \/ Why then Ile fit you…\u201d Irwin gathers fragments of his past and present to make sense of his life. In stitching these pieces together, a clear pattern of survival emerges for mother and son\u2014one built on reading and writing, fierce mutual loyalty, and shared dark humor. The fragmented style gives Irwin permission to tell this story:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All our stories are peppered with half-truths and inconsistencies and, like my parents, I, too, am riddled with prejudices and contradictions. All I can offer is what I can remember, what I\u2019ve witnessed and felt, and what I\u2019ve been told. (225)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We cannot know the entirety of someone\u2019s story, Irwin indirectly tells us. This shows up most strikingly in his relationship with his grandmother as compared to his mother\u2019s relationship with her. His grandmother provides Irwin with support, encouragement, and comfort. She\u2019s a steadying presence in his life. Yet, after she dies, he learns of the abuse and neglect his mother and uncle endured as children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The treatment of religion as an evolving, living belief system threads through this book. Audrey starts out as Catholic, and throughout her dying days, she clutches and prays her rosary. But Irwin shows the more complicated reality of belief over the course of a lifetime. Audrey shifts churches, stands up to a nun who insists he shouldn\u2019t be at school but institutionalized, and sees the ghost of her grandfather, other family members, and strangers. In one of the most moving scenes, his mother calls a priest to her house\u2014even though she hasn\u2019t attended mass in decades\u2014because she\u2019s hearing footsteps running on the basement stairs. She tells the priest all her trauma, including finding her mother in the basement with a noose around her neck.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Father Dennis finally spoke, he told my mother that the person she heard running up the stairs was her younger self. \u201cIt\u2019s you, and you\u2019re still running,\u201d he said. Before leaving, Father Dennis told my mother she had to not only forgive her mother, but herself as well.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this scene, and throughout <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These Fragments I Have Shored,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Irwin beautifully blends the uncanny and the mundane. This memoir contains grit and heart in just the right combination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I first read that beginning paragraph, I immediately snapped a picture and texted it to my friend. His own mother is battling bone cancer and dementia. He\u2019s suddenly thrown into the role of a caregiver. My own words had felt so shallow, and this was a way to finally say to him: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I see you. I understand what you\u2019re going through.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isn\u2019t that one of the joys of reading? To understand someone better, to make someone feel a little less alone in their own situation. This is exactly what Jason Irwin\u2019s beautiful memoir does.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These Fragments I Have Shored<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/tag\/jason-irwin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jason Irwin<\/a> was published by <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/these-fragments-i-have-shored-a-memoir-jason-irwin\/6317b5e153b3b355?ean=9781627206396&bkshp-astro=t\">Apprentice House<\/a> on May 05, 2026.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"76182\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/the-confines-by-anu-kandikuppa-reviewed-by-emily-webber\/emily-webber\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?fit=1062%2C1062&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1062,1062\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"emily webber\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-76182 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/emily-webber.jpg?w=1062&ssl=1 1062w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/tag\/emily-webber\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Emily Webber<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a writer of criticism, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rain Taxi<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ploughshares <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blog<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rumpus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writer <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>magazine<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America Magazine<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0and elsewhere. She\u2019s the author of a chapbook of flash fiction,\u00a0<em>Macerated<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">Read more from <em>Cleaver Magazine<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/recent-reviews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Book Reviews<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nonfiction by Jason Irwin, reviewed by Emily Webber THESE FRAGMENTS I HAVE SHORED (Apprentice House) When Jason Irwin\u2019s memoir, These Fragments I Have Shored, reached me, I was tempted to set it aside; I already had a massive to-be-read pile. But I decided to read the first page before adding it to the stack.\u00a0 \u201cJay! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":81003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[274,99],"tags":[2400,20366,20246,13009],"class_list":["post-81002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nonfiction-reviews","category-reviews","tag-apprentice-house","tag-apprentice-house-press","tag-emily-webber","tag-jason-irwin"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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aside; I already had a massive to-be-read pile.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/these-fragments-i-have-shored-by-jason-irwin-reviewed-by-emily-webber\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cleavermagazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-25T13:28:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T23:04:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"928\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta 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Konopka"},"url":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/author\/autumn\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p30UXE-l4u","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/these-fragments-cover.jpg?fit=600%2C928&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81154,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81002\/revisions\/81154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":81031,"date":"2026-08-19T18:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/?p=81031"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:12:16","slug":"philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"color: #c95304; font-size: 14pt;\">A Writing Tip by Karen Rile<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">Chestnut Hill Bookstore Tour\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<div>In Northwest Philly\u2019s Chestnut Hill, where I\u2019ve lived since 1987, we have an embarrassment of riches: four (count \u2018em!) independent bookstores on our 1.5-mile main drag, each store complementing the others with its own distinct flavor and mission. Here\u2019s my weekend walking tour:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/multiverse-opens-early-offering-discounts-and-a-booklovers-breakfast-with-baked-street-bread-and-cafe-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/multiverse-opens-early-offering-discounts-and-a-booklovers-breakfast-with-baked-street-bread-and-cafe-draft&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw1mvICKiVaU3iH1IwxQU81f\">Multiverse<\/a><\/strong><b>:\u00a0<\/b>The first thing you notice when you enter the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.multiversephilly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.multiversephilly.com&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw2N0OWv6aUGhpQb9yQB2Mcp\">Multiverse<\/a>\u00a0is its gorgeous, inviting space, designed by co-owner Gralin Hughes, Jr. The shelves to the left are stocked with the best collection of speculative literary fiction I\u2019ve seen under one roof, as well as hardcore science fiction, graphic narrative, fantasy, and horror. The children\u2019s collection ranges from picture books and early readers through young adult, and includes middle years and YA graphic narrative. And then there\u2019s the comics section (I\u2019m not a comics fan, but I take others\u2019 words for it, that it\u2019s top-notch. There\u2019s also a selection of board games, RPGs, and artisan-created greeting cards and bookmarks, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Cleaver-Bookmark.jpg\">this<\/a> Cleaver bookmark, which is now out of stock because I bought all of them. Multiverse is Black, Brown, and women-co-owned. 8026 Germantown Ave, just above Willow Grove.\u00a0<i>Opening early, offering discounts and a Booklovers Breakfast with Baker Street Bread & Cafe.<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/booked-hosting-quinn-jamison-at-the-shop-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/booked-hosting-quinn-jamison-at-the-shop-draft&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw2phsKi67vvi6M5eKtjacbw\">Booked<\/a>:<\/strong> A few blocks up the hill, you’ll find\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bookedch.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.bookedch.com&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw0ySQ8hajavfAnmgBfxnrP5\">Booked<\/a>, Chestnut\u2019s Hill\u2019s all-around upscale bookstore, offering a curated selection of the\u00a0latest literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and genre publications, along with literary magazines (get your\u00a0<i>Paris Review\u00a0<\/i>here), local authors, a delightful kids’ nook, and writerly-readerly gifts like fancy pencils and notebooks. Their greeting card selection is one of the wittiest around\u2014whenever I visit, I stock up for future birthdays. Booked is woman-owned. 8511 Germantown Avenue, between Highland and Evergreen. <i>Hosting Quinn Jamison, author of The Art of Time at 10 am.<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/50-watts-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.phillybookstorecrawl.com\/updates\/50-watts-draft&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw1sUOJ6P_znOIMlnRlqptZS\"><strong>50 Watts Books:<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0I buried the lede with this one.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw3qAJjZfb4WkeXgSx85fst5\">50 Watts<\/a>\u00a0is my favorite bookstore, ever. I could spend my life in this store. I\u2019ve walked in and found pristine copies of out-of-print gems\u00a0I\u2019ve been hunting\u00a0for years, but the best experience here is the frisson of serendipity when you find a heretofore\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/revenge-of-the-librarians?_pos=1&_sid=d419fb151&_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/revenge-of-the-librarians?_pos%3D1%26_sid%3Dd419fb151%26_ss%3Dr&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw3sf0IrOa2CSnN2bpvPiLhK\">unknown-to-you book<\/a>\u00a0that you know you will not be able to live without. The store is tucked away on a side street, half a block from Booked. Maybe it\u2019s me, but 50 Watt is chockablock with everything I\u2019m obsessed with and all the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/the-love-letters-of-a-portuguese-nun-gabriel-de-guilleragues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/the-love-letters-of-a-portuguese-nun-gabriel-de-guilleragues&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw1fLHMNr6SohEyBYBBLLNlF\">new obsessions<\/a>\u00a0I\u2019ll pick up there as I\u2019m browsing. If you love design, typography, literary culture, cultural literacy, fabulism, lit wit,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/anthropomorphic-japan-the-frogs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/anthropomorphic-japan-the-frogs&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw3wMd3mEeTZySjCNomTaN2W\">Japanese art\u00a0<\/a>and culture,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/piano-decompositions-the-ecology-of-destroyed-and-decaying-instruments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/piano-decompositions-the-ecology-of-destroyed-and-decaying-instruments&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw0wYdziTPMUTH2MVczIXmmi\">music<\/a>, color theory, cats, and the best of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/millions-of-cats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/millions-of-cats&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw12R5B3-Mn0zpU_rx5IevoG\">children\u2019s books<\/a>\u00a0across the ages and multiple languages, then enter at your own risk: you may leave. 50 Watt\u2019s shy owners seem to curate their collection as if they live inside my own head, and I\u2019m not the only one who feels this way. Everyone I\u2019ve brought here emerges thinking the same. The name is difficult to remember because there are no 50-watt bulbs. But that\u2019s the point. If you work to find it, you\u2019ll remember how to get there. 15 W. Highland Avenue, half a block west of Germantown Avenue.\u00a0<i>Opens early at 9 am with discounted books. $10 gift cards to the first 50 customers for use after the Crawl.<\/i><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hilltopbooks.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/hilltopbooks.org&source=gmail&ust=1787173781495000&usg=AOvVaw0ySfZlB_gHNY7pZ7eoSziZ\">Hilltop Books<\/a>:<\/strong> Just past the top of the hill, a block east on Bethlehem Pike, you\u2019ll find Hilltop, the bookstore of the Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library. Hilltop sells gently read and new books in multiple genres at well-below-market rates, and they restock daily, so you never know what surprises await you. All proceeds benefit the library. 84 Bethlehem Pike.\u00a0<i>Open 9 to 5 for the crawl.<\/i><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80525\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/masthead\/karen-rile\/karen-march-2025-square\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?fit=2097%2C2097&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2097,2097\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Karen March 2025 square\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-80525 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Karen Rile\n\nPhiladelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?resize=2048%2C2048&ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Karen Rile<\/strong>, Cleaver’s Editor-in-Chief, lives in Philadelphia and teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of\u00a0<em>Winter Music<\/em>\u00a0(Little, Brown), a novel set in Philadelphia, and numerous works of fiction and creative nonfiction.\u00a0She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MFA from Bennington College, and a certificate in satire from The Second City. She is also the mom of four adult daughters with more interesting careers than her own: an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/\">aerialist<\/a>, a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.madhotglass.com\/\">glass artist<\/a>, a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.madhotglass.com\/\">violist<\/a>, and a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pascalesmith.com\/\">playwright<\/a>.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/masthead\/karen-rile\/\"> Read Karen’s full bio here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>Read more from\u00a0<em>Cleaver<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/writing-tips\/\">Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Writing Tip by Karen Rile Chestnut Hill Bookstore Tour\u00a0 In Northwest Philly\u2019s Chestnut Hill, where I\u2019ve lived since 1987, we have an embarrassment of riches: four (count \u2018em!) independent bookstores on our 1.5-mile main drag, each store complementing the others with its own distinct flavor and mission. Here\u2019s my weekend walking tour: Multiverse:\u00a0The first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":80525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19686],"tags":[20418,20420,1753,20419,609],"class_list":["post-81031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-tips","tag-50-watts-books","tag-booked","tag-karen-rile","tag-multiverse","tag-philadelphia"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Philadelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill • Cleaver Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hilltop is the bookstore of the Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library. Open 9 to 5 for the Philadelphia Book Crawl.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philadelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill • Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hilltop is the bookstore of the Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library. Open 9 to 5 for the Philadelphia Book Crawl.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cleavermagazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T22:55:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T23:12:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2097\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2097\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Autumn Konopka\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/49f58a1c45fbc1b81cd2fc01f81ad2fd\"},\"headline\":\"Philadelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-19T22:55:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:12:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":729,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?fit=2097%2C2097&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"50 Watts Books\",\"Booked\",\"Karen Rile\",\"Multiverse\",\"Philadelphia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Writing Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/\",\"name\":\"Philadelphia Book Crawl, Tour of Chestnut Hill • Cleaver Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/philadelphia-book-crawl-tour-of-chestnut-hill\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/Karen-March-2025-square.jpeg?fit=2097%2C2097&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-19T22:55:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:12:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"Hilltop is the bookstore of the Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library. 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color: #c95304;\"><b>A Writing Tip by <\/b><b>Michelle Reale<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><b>MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><b>Temporal<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Breakneck<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Monologue<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Axis<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Countenance<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above list of inscrutable words \u2014 inscrutable at least in how they appear together \u2014 represents a deposit that I made in my word bank this week. It joins hundreds of other words that I have collected so far this year in my red moleskin notebook. I make frequent and periodic deposits of words gleaned from a variety of sources, such as books I am reading, overheard conversations, etc. I collect these words like someone might collect sea glass or matchbooks\u2014not only for their aesthetic value, but also because I enjoy them and see their inherent qualities. I bank these words until I need one or more of them. Then I make a withdrawal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My word bank not only allows me to choose a word that might fit, in a variety of ways, into a poem I am composing, but often I use an exercise, a warming up if you will, in which I randomly choose a word and allow a poem to coalesce around it. The power of any one word is only limited by your imagination in how you will use it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phrases are helpful in your word bank as well! I had three specific phrases in my word bank that I recently used in poems as first lines:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 80px;\"><b>A flawed bureaucracy<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Surface level stitching<br \/>\n<\/b><b>I could smell blood in the water<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initially, at least, I used these phrases to generate poems. I started out with each phrase and let my imagination take over. A particular word or phrase will often startle what has been lying in wait for me right into my conscious mind. Stretching the boundaries of the literal meaning of a word or phrase is often a byproduct of this kind of word play. When I used \u201ca flawed bureaucracy\u201d in one of my poems, it was to describe the dysfunction of a family system; \u201csurface level stitching\u201d describes a person who has figuratively put a Band-Aid on something that needs surgery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making deposits in your word bank on a regular basis will certainly ensure that you have words that are off the beaten track to help you write the poems that are waiting to be written!<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"81024\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\/michelle-reale-2026\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?fit=722%2C960&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"722,960\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"michelle reale 2026\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?fit=660%2C878&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-81024 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Michelle Reale\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?zoom=2&resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/michelle-reale-2026.jpeg?zoom=3&resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><strong>Michelle Reale<\/strong> is a poet and academic. She has published several collections with a focus on Italian-American life, ethnic identity, histories, family dynamics and remembrance and forgetting. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let it Be Extravagant <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2025)\u00a0 is her latest collection from Bordighera Press. She is the Director of Arcadia University’s Low-Residency Program and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>Read more from <em>Cleaver<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/writing-tips\/\">Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Writing Tip by Michelle Reale MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK Temporal Breakneck Monologue Axis Countenance The above list of inscrutable words \u2014 inscrutable at least in how they appear together \u2014 represents a deposit that I made in my word bank this week. It joins hundreds of other words that I have collected so far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":53688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19688,19752,19686],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-81023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-genre-prompts","category-poetry-tips","category-writing-tips","tag-michelle-reale"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Michelle Reale: MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK • Writing Tips<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michelle Reale is a poet and academic. She has published several collections focusing on Italian-American life, ethnic identity, and more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michelle Reale: MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK • Writing Tips\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michelle Reale is a poet and academic. She has published several collections focusing on Italian-American life, ethnic identity, and more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cleavermagazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T17:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T23:17:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Writing-tips-button.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Autumn Konopka\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/49f58a1c45fbc1b81cd2fc01f81ad2fd\"},\"headline\":\"MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK by Michelle Reale\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-19T17:47:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:17:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":448,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/Writing-tips-button.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Michelle Reale\"],\"articleSection\":[\"All Genre Prompts\",\"Poetry Tips\",\"Writing Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/\",\"name\":\"Michelle Reale: MANAGING YOUR WORD BANK • Writing Tips\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/managing-your-word-bank-by-michelle-reale\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/08\\\/Writing-tips-button.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-19T17:47:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:17:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Michelle Reale is a poet and academic. 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color: #c95304;\"><b>A Writing Tip by Amy Beth Sisson<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><b>DO THE WRONG THING<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an acting workshop I attended recently, the director urged us to perform the scene \u201cwrong\u201d \u2014 to inhabit our character in a way that made no sense, that would be absolutely inappropriate. One student played a job applicant in an interview. He performed as if he were trying to hit on the interviewer. It was a hilarious and brilliant shift! Christopher Walken famously uses the technique of doing the wrong thing: \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/christopher-walken-hates-punctuation\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">…if something has an exclamation point, I\u2019ll make it a question just to see what will happen.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes, the right choice is to show how wrong you are. Mary Oliver’s famous line, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orcity.org\/DocumentCenter\/View\/1367\/March-2019-Poetry-Post---Wild-Geese-by-Mary-Oliver-PDF\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You do not have to be good<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">” is also sound writing craft advice. A poet friend was writing an ode to her dog. In the first draft, she shared that she had almost given the dog up for adoption because it constantly peed in the house. When she was revising, she considered omitting that anecdote from the ode because it made the speaker unlikable, but that story of her wrongness made her love for her dog more visceral and touching.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When creating, trying to \u201cget it right\u201d can be stifling. One day in art class in third grade, I tried to make a painting of ghostly faces, but I couldn’t make it look on the page the way I’d envisioned in my head. I gave up and ended up painting a rainbow \u2014 like most every other kid in class. I\u2019d abandoned the struggle, made the safe choice, and ended up with a stereotype. Staying in the struggle, on the other hand, even if it\u2019s \u201cwrong\u201d can lead to happy surprises. I try to remember this when my draft on the page isn\u2019t living up to my original idea.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be wrong! Approach your work with a sense of play, and deliberately make the worst choice. The choice may or may not end up in your final draft, but it could lead you to new work that is present and vivid.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"76006\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/an-interview-with-linda-norton-author-of-cloud-of-witnesses-by-amy-beth-sisson\/amybethsissonheadshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?fit=1877%2C1877&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1877,1877\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"AmyBethSissonheadshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-76006 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"Amy Beth Sisson\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AmyBethSissonheadshot.jpg?w=1877&ssl=1 1877w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Amy Beth Sisson<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (she\/her, they\/them) is the author of the poetry chapbook <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mouthbrooder<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (fifth wheel press, forthcoming 2027). She is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fenceportal.org\/steaming-2\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fence Magazine<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s Steaming<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (online) visual poetry editor and serves on the board of Blue Stoop, where she helps with educational programming. She curates poetry events for the beautiful Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, PA.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"entry-content is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>Read more from Cleaver\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/writing-tips\/\">Writing Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Writing Tip by Amy Beth Sisson DO THE WRONG THING In an acting workshop I attended recently, the director urged us to perform the scene \u201cwrong\u201d \u2014 to inhabit our character in a way that made no sense, that would be absolutely inappropriate. One student played a job applicant in an interview. He performed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":53688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19873,19686],"tags":[19294],"class_list":["post-80969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-genre-tips","category-writing-tips","tag-amy-beth-sisson"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, A Visual Book Review by Lara Boyle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\"><b>Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><b>FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegelandgrau.com\/forest-euphoria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiegel & Grau<\/a>)<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em>A traditionally formatted, text version of this review is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-reviewed-by-lara-boyle-text-only\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80940\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/forest-euphoria-p1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?fit=1827%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1827,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Forest Euphoria p1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C925&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80940\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1.jpg?resize=1000%2C1401&ssl=1\" alt=\"FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, A Visual Book Review by Lara Boyle\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C925&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?resize=286%2C400&ssl=1 286w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1076&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?resize=1096%2C1536&ssl=1 1096w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?resize=1462%2C2048&ssl=1 1462w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p1-scaled.jpg?w=1827&ssl=1 1827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80941\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/forest-euphoria-p2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?fit=1827%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1827,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Forest Euphoria p2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C925&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80941\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2.jpg?resize=1000%2C1401&ssl=1\" alt=\"FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, A Visual Book Review by Lara Boyle\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C925&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?resize=286%2C400&ssl=1 286w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1076&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?resize=1096%2C1536&ssl=1 1096w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?resize=1462%2C2048&ssl=1 1462w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p2-scaled.jpg?w=1827&ssl=1 1827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80942\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/forest-euphoria-p3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?fit=1827%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1827,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Forest Euphoria p3\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C925&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80942\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3.jpg?resize=1000%2C1401&ssl=1\" alt=\"FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, A Visual Book Review by Lara Boyle\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?resize=286%2C400&ssl=1 286w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C925&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1076&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?resize=1096%2C1536&ssl=1 1096w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?resize=1462%2C2048&ssl=1 1462w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p3-scaled.jpg?w=1827&ssl=1 1827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80943\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/forest-euphoria-p4\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?fit=1827%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1827,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Forest Euphoria p4\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C925&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80943\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4.jpg?resize=1000%2C1401&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?resize=286%2C400&ssl=1 286w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C925&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1076&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?resize=1096%2C1536&ssl=1 1096w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?resize=1462%2C2048&ssl=1 1462w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p4-scaled.jpg?w=1827&ssl=1 1827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80944\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/forest-euphoria-p5\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?fit=1827%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1827,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Forest Euphoria p5\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C925&ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-80944\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5.jpg?resize=1000%2C1401&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?resize=286%2C400&ssl=1 286w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C925&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1076&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?resize=1096%2C1536&ssl=1 1096w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?resize=1462%2C2048&ssl=1 1462w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Forest-Euphoria-p5-scaled.jpg?w=1827&ssl=1 1827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegelandgrau.com\/forest-euphoria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiegel & Grau<\/a> in May 2025.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80935\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-reviewed-by-lara-boyle-text-only\/lara-boyle-headshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"lara boyle headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-80935 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?w=2300&ssl=1 2300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Lara Boyle<\/strong> is a writer and cartoonist who holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she made a graphic memoir thesis and received an Alfred and Anita Schnog Travel Award for Holocaust Studies to support her research. Her essays have appeared in <em>White Wall Review<\/em>, <em>QU Lit Mag<\/em>, and more. Her book reviews and interviews have appeared in <em>The Southern Review of Books<\/em>, <em>Solrad Online Literary Magazine for Comics<\/em>, and <em>The Broken Frontier<\/em>, among others. She\u2019s currently working on a graphic memoir.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Read more from Cleaver Magazine\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/recent-reviews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Book Reviews<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (Spiegel & Grau) A traditionally formatted, text version of this review is available HERE.\u00a0 Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by Spiegel & Grau in May 2025. Lara Boyle is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":80934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[274,99,20413],"tags":[20414,20415,13465],"class_list":["post-80939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nonfiction-reviews","category-reviews","category-visual-book-review","tag-lara-boyle","tag-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian","tag-spiegel-grau"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian: FOREST EUPHORIA • Book Reviews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by Spiegel & Grau in May 2025.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian: FOREST EUPHORIA • Book Reviews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by Spiegel & Grau in May 2025.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cleavermagazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T20:42:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T00:40:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CleaverMagazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-visual-review-by-lara-boyle\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Autumn Konopka\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.cleavermagazine.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/49f58a1c45fbc1b81cd2fc01f81ad2fd\"},\"headline\":\"FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, A Visual Book Review by Lara 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EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle TEXT ONLY"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #c95304;\"><b>Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle<br \/>\n<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\"><b>FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegelandgrau.com\/forest-euphoria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiegel & Grau<\/a>)<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80934\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-reviewed-by-lara-boyle-text-only\/forest-euphoria-cover\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?fit=667%2C1000&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"667,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"forest euphoria cover\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?fit=660%2C990&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-80934\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?resize=325%2C487&ssl=1\" alt=\"FOREST EUPHORIA by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle TEXT ONLY\" width=\"325\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?resize=267%2C400&ssl=1 267w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?resize=660%2C990&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg?w=667&ssl=1 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/>Many people who oppose LGBTQ+ rights argue that queerness is somehow unnatural, but in the essay collection, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian argues the opposite is true: our existence has always been natural. We thrive in every species. Human biases have taught us to view differences as wrong. \u201cThroughout the book,\u201d she says, \u201cI explore how nature <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">queer.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Kaishian combines research about queer ecology with forest euporia coverher own observations to show how our personal lives can be better understood through science. \u201cQueer ecology,\u201d suggests that human biases erase or exclude evidence of queerness in nature, not a lack of evidence. With clean, gripping prose and a scientist\u2019s eye, Kaishian returns to the culvert near her childhood home, where she found freedom in Upstate, New York. \u201cI felt safest when I was unwitnessed by other people,\u201d Dr.Kaishian writes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the company of Jesus bugs and rattlesnakes, she frees herself from the societal expectations and social rules around gender. The environment invites her to reckon with her Armenian heritage through a lens of newfound resilience. She turns to specifics which may be considered ugly or otherwise overlooked in order to embrace the parts of herself society has othered for defying the norm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would follow the author into any unknown forest. Her sentences wash over you like a stream. Each word has been placed for precision and lyricism, welcoming us with an accessible voice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the essay \u201cInterspecies Dens,\u201d the writer connects the dots between her interest in biodiversity and the isolation she experienced as a child, writing that she enjoys<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blurring the lines between human and nature because I believe we, as a species, have become self-imposed in our isolation. And it\u2019s because of this that the planet is spinning through a devastating loss in biodiversity. (11)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She finds similarities among animals feared by people and queerness since both are misunderstood due to harmful myths. Biblical narratives introduce the snake as the devil incarnate, yet ignore their purpose in their own ecosystems. Similarly, religion has been weaponized against queer people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She turns to her culture\u2019s folklore to challenge dominant Western narratives about animals. In Armenian folklore, for instance, snakes are magical protectors and guardians. By re-examining our perception of creatures we have been taught to hate, Kaishian urges us to realize we are more similar than we think. Only labels divide us. In doing so, we might attempt to protect all forms of life amidst environmental collapse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the essay \u201cSlugs, Snails, And Other Ways Of Being,\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a child\u2019s fascination with slugs leads to an adult unlearning shame around her body and sexuality. In the documentary, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microcosmos, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">she learns about the \u201cqueerness of snails\u201d: their genders are obscured, however they are \u201cboth, and, in a way, neither\u201d (29). Labels then lose their relevance. Love is just love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This fact helps validate Kaishian\u2019s own uncertainty around her gender identity, permission to reject the binary while still benign \u201ccomplete\u201d (29). Creatures like the snail, slug, and the cassowary become gateways for the author to arrive at a euphoric conclusion: \u201cQueerness is common throughout the tree of life\u201d (30). She questions how we are taught about sexuality and biology. What information is being omitted to uphold the prejudices of scientists? She even finds refuge in the \u201cthe culvert, the forest, and the swamp\u201d after an assault, since the shame she felt didn\u2019t impact the \u201cqueer and maligned beings\u201d in these murky spaces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In \u201cFungal Personhood,\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Kaishian describes how environmental writers inspired her to follow her passion for mycology, the study of fungi \u2013 like the poet Mary Oliver or Robin Wall Kimmerer, the naturalist best known for her book, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Braiding Sweetgrass.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continuing the legacy of her literary predecessors, Dr. Kaishian has written an intimate, beautiful book that combines scientific research and the essay to educate and illuminate her audience about the diversity of our interconnected ecosystems while advocating for us to fight for a better future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To queer readers like me, she also says: I see you. You belong here. You are as natural as a forest or a crow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian was published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegelandgrau.com\/forest-euphoria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spiegel & Grau<\/a> in May 2025.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"80935\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-reviewed-by-lara-boyle-text-only\/lara-boyle-headshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2560&ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,2560\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"lara boyle headshot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?fit=660%2C660&ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-80935 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C768&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1536&ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lara-boyle-headshot-scaled.jpg?w=2300&ssl=1 2300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Lara Boyle<\/strong> is a writer and cartoonist who holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she made a graphic memoir thesis and received an Alfred and Anita Schnog Travel Award for Holocaust Studies to support her research. Her essays have appeared in <em>White Wall Review<\/em>, <em>QU Lit Mag<\/em>, and more. Her book reviews and interviews have appeared in <em>The Southern Review of Books<\/em>, <em>Solrad Online Literary Magazine for Comics<\/em>, and <em>The Broken Frontier<\/em>, among others. She\u2019s currently working on a graphic memoir.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Read more from Cleaver Magazine\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/recent-reviews\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Book Reviews<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nonfiction by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, reviewed by Lara Boyle FOREST EUPHORIA: THE ABOUNDING QUEERNESS OF NATURE (Spiegel & Grau) Many people who oppose LGBTQ+ rights argue that queerness is somehow unnatural, but in the essay collection, Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian argues the opposite is true: our existence has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":80934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[274,99],"tags":[20414,20415,13465],"class_list":["post-80929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nonfiction-reviews","category-reviews","tag-lara-boyle","tag-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian","tag-spiegel-grau"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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May 2025.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/forest-euphoria-by-patricia-ononiwu-kaishian-reviewed-by-lara-boyle-text-only\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cleaver Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cleavermagazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-11T20:19:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T00:49:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleavermagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/forest-euphoria-cover-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Autumn Konopka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" 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