The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: The Mid-Year Best Best Dressed

This week, Managing Editor Merrick Sloane shares a new selection from each of their 5 favorite books featured on The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed so far this year.

Merrick’s next selection for the mid-year best of 2026 is from The Fault by Marcela Sulak (Black Lawrence Press 2024).

WEDDING GIFT

The print that began the ending of my marriage was so
gorgeous, I’d forgotten how gorgeous it was in real life, laid
out on the examination table, as the framer and I took measure
of what lay before us—the paper itself and the textures, alive
and breathing. The whale inside it shook a bit and swished,
but it might have been the waves brushing against a stone, or
it might not have been water at all, just strange birds in the
Negev against a blue and white sky about to blink off without
the fanfare of sunset. Tears burst when my fingertips brushed
it. The framer, also, cleared his throat upon sliding it from
its canister and unfolding it across the table. He touched the
ragged edges and caressed the signature—print 1 of 12, he
whispered. Every time he touched it he asked permission, as
if we were lovers—may I remove it from its box? May I spread
it out? The framer is going to Monte Negro for a week, so
he’ll have it ready on Friday, Sept. 20. Once home, I undress
and wait in bed, the sheets and covers indeterminate colors of
green, for the dream to return to the point it left off, the last
time I touched it. Then I was swimming all night through
the air/sand/water that was the page of the print, and while
nothing in particular happened, it was the nothing particular
that happens when you walk on a strange and beautiful
landscape for the first time. Or the nothing particular that
ends a marriage. Then every leaf and every water drop and
every strange flower is a happening.

Marcela Sulak (she/her) has authored five poetry collections, most recently, The Fault, and the National Jewish Book Awards Finalist, City of Skypapers (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Her six translations of poetry collections from Czech, French, and Hebrew, have been recognized by PEN and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is managing editor of The Ilanot Review, and she directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

Merrick Sloane (they/them) is a neuro-Queer 90’s kid and nonbinary poet, editor, and researcher from Oklahoma. They hold an MFA in creative writing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and are Associate Poetry Editor of Doubleback Review. A 2026 Best of the Net and 2025 AWP Intro Journal Awards winner, Merrick’s poetry appears in citizen trans* {project}, Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Fruitslice, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. When they are not writing or editing, Merrick loves to serve as a pillow for their cat, Kitten, while getting lost in new worlds written by other dreamers. Merrick is deeply committed to helping create a world that liberates us all.