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 fourth selection for the mid-year best of 2026 is from local remedies by Chiagoziem Jideofor (Host Publications 2026).

in today’s terms

the war ended
when we had just folded

the impact was leaden
we picked up panic

it then grew to become war
hence the need to tell it in parts

in today’s terms
are dazed and struggling

while the generals patrol the streets
coordinate door-to-door

at home, we stay worrying
why we aren’t yet dazzling,

when a greater force met our bodies
like businesses stockpiling only rebel notes

with the flies circling and buzzing
picked up bulk in adjourning rooms

that happened differently,
and attach local colors

war means people are in no hurry
with replacements

with an air
in the name of civil obedience

the boys asking
so unlike the sun in our flag

Chiagoziem Jideofor (she/her) is Queer and Igbo. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Michigan Quarterly Review, South Carolina Review, berlin lit, The Lincoln Review, Passages North, Commonwealth’s adda, the minnesota review, Shō Poetry Journal, MAYDAY, and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from the University of Alabama and is currently a PhD student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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.