Sundress Reads: Review of Transitory

I read the poems in Subhaga Crystal Bacon’s Transitory (BOA Editions 2023) with a heavy heart following the events of the past few weeks. On April 25th 2024, I watched police in riot gear storm my college’s encampment and brutalize my classmates, peers, and friends, specifically targeting black and brown students, as we peacefully protested the genocide in Gaza. This poetry collection honors trans lives that were lost in 2020 to violence, and here we are four years later, with violence and grief continuing to permeate our lives as more Palestinians are martyred every day.

Bacon uses her collection to ensure that the lives and legacies of the trans people she dedicates her poetry to—the ones that were murdered because their mere existence has turned into a political issue for people to debate—aren’t reduced to a statistic. Through her elegies, she humanizes trans lives lost to violence, reminding the reader that they had lives outside of their deaths. Bacon begins the collection with “Cautiously Watching for Violence,” a poem where the speaker opens up about their own experience with transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny. The poem begins with the speaker recounting a violent threat they received from a man over the phone: “I’m going to come where you live / and rape you and kill you” (13). Although I don’t know if Bacon is speaking from her own experience or the experience of another trans person, I nevertheless commend her for writing so unapologetically about the violent transphobia that runs rampant in our society. 

This collection is full of bravery. If I’ve learned anything from this collection, it’s to be steadfast in advocating for justice. Later in the same poem, the speaker recounts how even in the present day, they still are subject to transphobia and homophobia: 

“Even, at sixty, walking my foofy dog across the street

in the suburbs, a spring day, from the car window

he says get out of the way you ugly old dyke” (14).

Even though society is more progressive than it was years and years ago, such words are still spewing with hatred. I think some people turn a blind eye, naively, to the transphobia and homophobia that is prevalent in today’s world because they compare today to society decades ago. They choose to only look at the progress we’ve made. But just because younger generations are more progressive and politically active, just because we have slightly more trans and queer representation in media now than we did decades ago, doesn’t mean we should stop fighting. 

Although every poem in this collection is poignant, one particularly moving poem is “Alexa: Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, 28, Tao Baja, Puerto Rico, February 24.” In this poem dedicated to Alexa, the speaker recounts the details of Alexa’s death and how her killers filmed her murder, posting it to social media. I can’t help but re-read the last stanza constantly:

“In the headlights’ glare, ten shots, laughter

on the video they shared on social media

because it is allowed” (18).

This image haunts me. Not only are these people ending a trans life, but they’re taking pride in it, relishing in it with laughter like it’s a celebration. From the poem “Nina Pop, 28, Sikeston, MO, May 3,” I can’t stop thinking about the line, “What happened next, only you and he know, / and neither of you is speaking” (27). Nina physically can’t speak because she’s no longer alive; she no longer has a body or a voice. The man who murdered her, on the other hand, is not speaking because he doesn’t want to own up to the atrocity he committed. When I read “John Scott/Scottlynn Kelly DeVore, 51, Augusta, GA, March 12,” I keep circling back to the line, “For Scott’s loved ones, a nightmare that’s unending” (20). Although as a reader I am greatly impacted while reading this collection, what I feel does not even compare to what the families of these trans lives lost to violence are experiencing. They have to reckon with these tragedies every single day, the loss and grief seeping into their daily life.

Although Transitory was so difficult for me to read, I am so grateful I did. I implore everyone to read this collection because it is valuable and necessary. It is so important to raise awareness and open people’s eyes to the brutal reality that trans people are forced to endure daily. I’m not religious, but I really hope every trans life that was brutally taken, I hope they’re all together in their own trans heaven together, somewhere safer than this world ever was to them. While reading this collection, I thought a lot about the chants my peers and I sang at our college’s encampment, and how they linger in my mind even weeks later. In particular, I think about the chant, “free the people, free them all,” amidst the fight for Palestinian liberation, and how it connects to Maya Angelou’s words: “The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” Let us never stop advocating for the liberation of all people, for trans and queer people, for people of color, for Indigenous People, and for the liberation of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, and Haiti.

Transitory is available at BOA Editions

Annalisa Hansford (they/them) studies Creative Writing at Emerson College. Their poetry appears or is forthcoming in The West Review, The Lumiere Review, and Heavy Feather Review. They are the co-editor-in-chief of hand picked poetry, a poetry editor for The Emerson Review and Hominum Journal, and a reader for Sundress Publications.

Sundress Academy for the Arts Presents “From Selfie to Poetry: Writing the Self-Portrait Poem”

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “From Selfie to Poetry: Writing the Self-Portrait Poem,” a workshop led by Amie Whittemore on Wednesday, June 12th, 2024, from 6-7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).

In this generative workshop, we will explore the self-portrait poem and what it means to explicitly make the self—as messy and resistant to definition as it is—the subject of our poems. We’ll take inspiration from visual arts as well as contemporary poetry to draft new work and expand our poetic selves.

Participants of all levels of experience are welcome.

While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Amie Whittemore via Venmo @Amie-Whittemore or Paypal via @AmieWhittemore.

Amie Whittemore (she/her) is the author of the poetry collections Glass Harvest (Autumn House Press), Star-tent: A Triptych (Tolsun Books), and Nest of Matches (Autumn House Press, 2024). She was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University and directs MTSU Write, a from-home creative writing mentorship program.

This event is brought to you in part by grants provided by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton

This selection, chosen by guest editor Sierra Farrare, is from I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton (Femme Salvé Books 2022).

Scarlet IV. Thermography

Without any hesitation but the truth, I bare my breasts
for a woman I met five minutes ago. I bare them

for an intimate act that has more to do with who I am
on the inside than losing my virginity
to my first real boyfriend at sixteen and a half,

a ritual I made him wait almost two years for before
presenting myself without warning, a condom in one hand

and a course of synthetic hormones running
through my blood. She is about to see them: a map
of estrogen and consequence; a latticework of lingerie

underneath my skin. There is no protection this time,
just the fear that comes when my shirt slides back on

and I wonder again what I’ve done. When the results come,
they will not be suspicious, but not optimal, like the motives
of most who have touched me. The heat map will reveal

the yellow line of a vein branching across my right breast;
the terminology used to describe it will sound ominous.

The technician will reassure me, say I don’t have anything
to worry about yet, that things can still be done to lower
my risk, but all I will hear in her tone is that

there is an equation inside me, and I will always need
someone else to tell me what it is.

Natalie Easton’s poems have appeared in such publications as Jet Fuel Review, Superstition Review, and tinywords. She was nominated for a Pushcart in 2014, and was a contributor at Bread Loaf in 2015. Her debut chapbook, I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead, was published by Femme Salvé Books on November 9th, 2022.


Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton

This selection, chosen by guest editor Sierra Farrare, is from I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton (Femme Salvé Books 2022).

Silver Bells

I.

You wouldn’t let me place a gift for you
underneath the tree. In your final weeks,

you touched the wind chime in our favorite shop—
I didn’t dare buy it for you. Later I went back

and claimed it for your friend. I wonder why
you wanted it; you knew you wouldn’t see

your flowers open up beneath. By January
you’d known so long that your words burned

as they flew, like birds in a dream: how they drop
swift and unwanted, like ash on the mountain.

II.

It was not goodbye enough that you bit your lip
and showed me how to make your meatloaf.

I was waiting for a revelation—instead,
you fed me incessantly. You smoked.

That comforting sound, like a hot coal kissed.
All your things still smell of cigarettes.

In my dreams, you’re always sick and angry.
In one, I bought you a fish tank; we waited

for the guppies to have babies. In another,
I planted you a garden whose every flower cast

its plastic gaze upon the sun. Not one time
in all these nights have you sparked a look at me.

But once, on a whim, I lifted the phone
before it rang, and your voice ran through

like you’d been waiting. “Don’t be ridiculous,”
you gently scoffed.

                             “Of course we can still speak.”

Natalie Easton’s poems have appeared in such publications as Jet Fuel Review, Superstition Review, and tinywords. She was nominated for a Pushcart in 2014, and was a contributor at Bread Loaf in 2015. Her debut chapbook, I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead, was published by Femme Salvé Books on November 9th, 2022.


Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton

This selection, chosen by guest editor Sierra Farrare, is from I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton (Femme Salvé Books 2022).

Things We Did After Your Death

I couldn’t bear your naked body, the one that made you
cry as if for pleasure. In the moment I didn’t know

my reasons why, only my discomfort. You peered at me
from the loose skin of starvation, like a girl flowing

from the folds of her mother’s discarded dress.
You wanted the chair, so I claimed your hospital bed.

I lifted your weight despite my back and later never
felt the pain, but I couldn’t wipe you after the bathroom,

or soap over the scar on your chest. In your illness
you were too new and innocent. I kept completely still

when your breath slowed to a lullaby pace; I couldn’t
shake the idea that an irate stranger crawled

beneath the cradle, possessed of your memories.
But I knew you would say, “Don’t let me go to the grave

dirty.” So after you died, while my stepfather turned away
and wailed, I took a damp rag and wiped your lips.

However much beer that mouth drank, however many times
it humorously cussed, or said “I love you,” however many

times it kissed a pet or chided a husband, it had closed
and was being touched for the final time by me.

For all I knew you felt it still, just as you heard me say
it was okay to take your last breath, and you agreed.

By this point the cat had disappeared,
and would not be seen for days.

Natalie Easton’s poems have appeared in such publications as Jet Fuel Review, Superstition Review, and tinywords. She was nominated for a Pushcart in 2014, and was a contributor at Bread Loaf in 2015. Her debut chapbook, I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead, was published by Femme Salvé Books on November 9th, 2022.


Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton

This selection, chosen by guest editor Sierra Farrare, is from I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton (Femme Salvé Books 2022).

Scarlet II. Trading

Your hand on the hospital phone: you answered with
What? not with Who? as if the only question

you had left was not who called, but what else to relate:
what other diagnosis of your heart taking on water,

like your lung—I’m not in a hospital, I’m in a goddamn
ship on the ocean. The needle prodding, then a port—

for you were at a place for trading—plugged below
your collar-bone. You told me that strange things

were happening: the woman sharing your room died,
then returned the next day to take up her knitting.

I agreed it was upsetting. I said your family seemed
to want something, that my phone was always ringing;

Don’t you let them get away with that, you said.
They were never there for me. But they arrived in shifts

to hold up time, the junkie’s vein, and didn’t mind
if what you could offer was clean, or hard to come by;

they came to watch you revolve slowly into knowing
and out again, like an answer revealed, and then

months passing. I heard this from home, two states away,
impatiently strategizing the best time to step in:

                                           close, but not too near, to the end.

Natalie Easton’s poems have appeared in such publications as Jet Fuel Review, Superstition Review, and tinywords. She was nominated for a Pushcart in 2014, and was a contributor at Bread Loaf in 2015. Her debut chapbook, I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead, was published by Femme Salvé Books on November 9th, 2022.


Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter.

Sundress Reads: Review of Swallowing Stones

The cover of Swallowing Stones. Several gray stones sit in front of a body of water.

As a collection, Lisa St. John’s Swallowing Stones (Kelsay Books, 2023) is meticulously organized: the first section looks inward, reflecting on the speaker’s youth with a focus on her fraught relationship with her mother that the speaker never seems to know what to make of. Her mother’s death leaves the speaker at an even deeper loss. The second section travels further outside the speaker, exploring societal ideas including feminism and environmentalism. The third and final section straddles the line, simultaneously going as far as outer space and traveling deep inside the speaker’s self. This section muses about death, the universe, and, interestingly, color. Poems like “Noise” and “There is No Color Without Light” use colors to examine the speaker’s physical environment and illuminate its relationship with the speaker. The speaker’s strong voice moves seamlessly through all sections of the collection, reflecting on her past, present, and future, especially as it relates to her husband, who lost his life to cancer.

Swallowing Stones wastes no time cutting into deep truths about the speaker’s world. The collection seems to have little energy for secrets or ambivalence. As painful as it is, the speaker views their past as an integral part of their life and thus remains in touch with it. She comes ready to talk about the death of her beloved husband. She comes ready to talk about her place as a woman in a world ready to make women statistics. She comes ready to talk about how art, space, and colors move her mind and shape her universe. In keeping with this brand of fearlessness, the poet is unafraid of abstractions. St. John makes heavy use of words such as “love,” “agony,” and “patience” that, as young poets, we are often taught to avoid. St. John clearly considers this fear of abstractions restrictive, which surprised and intrigued me about her work. 

These ideas are perhaps most potent when abstractions shake hands with more concrete images. In “The Potency of Thought,” the speaker explores the machinations of her own mind, reporting, “The bones of my brain have not yet been picked clean” (St. John 13). The speaker goes on to welcome life’s pains in “Symmetry of Loss.” She insists that “Remembering means living inside a prayer” (23), and taking in the pain of the death of loved ones—rather than avoiding it—leads to flourishing growth.

The collection is full of more seemingly opposed ideas as readers move through the speaker’s journey. St. John is not only conscious of these paradoxes, she appears to revel in them: “Hatred is just the awkward side of love,” she concludes in “Dressing Mom” (6). Hardness and softness, joy and grief, life and death all join in a dance throughout the collection.

Swallowing Stones looks at trauma as a part of life, like stones at the bottom of a river. But instead of being weighed down by these stones, or trying to escape them, St. John confronts them, swallowing them whole, transforming into something new and bright. In “There Must Be a Science to This,” the speaker resolves to “find the puzzle’s missing piece and eat it in remembrance of you,” concluding “[she] was not made to be complete.” For all its musings about death, the collection overall marches in the direction of rebirth. The opening lines of the final poem, “Dear Love,” a letter to the speaker’s late husband, seem to address this most directly:

I was afraid

that when you died,

no one would call me Lily any longer.

They would recall my paper name

and I would become Lisa again, and Lily would die, too.

But I am both

still

here. (St. John 73) 

St. John’s earnest, consistent reflections on the self urge us to look inward. Her poems at once feel like a thousand blooming flowers and a thousand solemn prayers. May we keep Swallowing Stones’s audacious approach to our personal growth as we find our own stones to swallow.

Swallowing Stones is available from Kelsay Books

A black person sitting in front of a field of tulips, smiling widely. They have an afro and wear mint-colored glasses with a navy sweater and gray jeans.

Whitney Cooper holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University, where they served as editor-in-chief of Jelly Bucket, the graduate literary journal run by the university. They also work as a reader for Atlanta Review. A clerical error was made while earning their bachelor’s degree, and they have been passionate about poetry ever since. Their poetry appears in Glassworks Magazine, Stillpoint Literary Magazine, Calliope, Right Hand Pointing, and SHARK REEF. They live in metro Atlanta with their wife, cat, and miniature schnauzer mix. 

Project Bookshelf: Erin Cantrell

Only one book on this shelf is one that I purchased for myself. Every other book was a gift. Were some gifts better than others? Absolutely! I would much rather read one of my James Patterson books again before I touch How to Survive a Freakin Bear Attack. But hey… here we are.

People read for two reasons: one, because they think they will actually enjoy it, and two, because someone told them to. I can proudly say that I am a prodigy of the latter option. I used to hate reading! Someone would have to pay me to pick up a book. Now, it is one of the most rewarding things in my life.

The books seen above fall into one of three categories:

  1. Books suggested for me through sports
  2. Books given to me for personal growth
  3. How to Survive a Freakin Bear Attack

My background consists of countless days spent in a locker room. It was sweaty and gross, but it was home. Back then, I was young, and I was ignorant, thinking my only purpose was to be a human machine. But my coaches knew there was more. They knew we needed to grow as people to grow as players. To do that, they challenged us to read. The first book was Watership Down which might’ve been a little too much for a 14-year-old, but The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon changed my life. I can almost guarantee that unless you were an athlete at some point in time, there is almost zero chance that you have read this book. I won’t spoil anything because I strongly urge everyone to read this it, but if you don’t, just know that you are an energy vampire.

Did you know you can take your bus anywhere you want to go? Say yes three times with me. Yes, yes, yes. You can take it to the movies, the beach or the North Pole. Just say where you want to go and believe that it will be so. Because every journey and ride begins with a desire to go somewhere and do something and if you have a desire then you also have the power to make it happen.

Jon Gordon, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

Personal growth can mean a number of things. It can mean to learn something or gain some peace of mind. The one book that I purchased is a combination of the two. A Daring Faith in A Cowardly World by Ken Harrison. This book was purchased for my mission trip to Alaska. It was the first mission trip I had ever been on and needless to say, I was terrified. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and I felt in no way prepared. How was I supposed to introduce my faith to others when I was still new to it myself? So, to calm my worries and to hopefully grow, I read. This book taught me so much about the importance of simplicity in one’s life. It also forced me to slow down and breathe. After finishing the book, I felt like everything was going to be okay, and it was! It turned out to be the best experience of my life.

The final category is simple: books with a deeper meaning than just a title. How to Survive a Freakin Bear Attack means so much more to me than actual survival skills. It was a gift that showed that someone was listening to what I was saying. As one can infer, I was talking about how I would survive a bear attack, so the gift was pretty spot on!

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered is the best example I have. On a trip my dad and I took together, we were looking at the books in the airport when we came across this title.

Since then, every time my dad and I sign off over text, we end it with, “I love you! Stay sexy, and don’t get murdered!”

I have never read this book and probably never will, but it is something that I will keep with me forever as a reminder of how much fun you can have with the little things.

Every book does not have to serve the same purpose and every book doesn’t have to stay on a shelf forever. My favorite books to read are not seen above because they have been given away to live on a new shelf for a while. Will they ever return back to my shelf? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean that what they gave me was any less valuable. A good book can be one that is worn, teared, maybe has some sand left in it. But it can also be one that is treasured, never touched, and serves as a reminder in your life about what led you to this point.

Erin Cantrell is a rising senior at the University of Tennessee where she is studying Creative Writing with hopes to attend law school. She loves poetry, pickleball, and bad TV sitcoms. In her free time, you can find her on the volleyball court where she is coaching young girls with dreams bigger than their pigtails.

Project Bookshelf: Saturn Browne

I go to boarding school and live in a very small single, which means I do not have as much storage for the books I love—most of my reads I’ve left at home. However, I brought books onto campus with me based on a few factors: my reading interest, how long they’ve been rotting on my bookshelf, and lastly, how much they weigh (when you have two 50-pound suitcases to carry your entire life across the country, things get a little difficult). Most of these books are also for class (unfortunately, I do not find myself casually interpreting the Bible). Moreover, I find my dorm room to be a collection of myself, and I wanted this corner to show personality and mementos of things I cared a lot about, so there’s also a lot of art!

Because I was applying to colleges last fall, I had a lot of school visits where I traveled throughout the east coast. As a result, I accumulated more than enough gifted merch from the admissions office I didn’t know where to put. Thus, there’s a few flags on the wall. I also may or may not have taken a poster copy of the Wesleyan Film Series calendar when I went, since film is also one of my main interests. The Palestinian flag is from a rally I went to in New Haven in December, and the two prints are gifts from friends for my birthday last May. Lastly, there’s a flyer from the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) to work as a gallery guide! The YUAG is one of my favorite places, so I forked off the poster from a current freshman friend and hung it up as well—I hope to work there next fall!

Proportionally, almost a third of the books here are poetry books. I have works from Mary Oliver, Ada Limón, Richard Siken, Noor Hindi, José Olivarez, and my own chapbook. When I attended Miami Book Fair this past November, I also got to meet some of the lovely people at Europa Press and purchased not one, not two, but three of Mieko Kawakami’s works. These are featured on the shelf as well as prose books like Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. Lastly, I have some books for class, such as Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, The Aeneid, The Oxford Annotated Bible, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

I also possess an incredible array of journals, ranging from my scrapbook to my writing journal I recently retired, to the diary I need to write in more consistently on my desk. Whether written in or not, most of these journals also find their way onto my shelf with my other items: my two tarot and oracle decks I chose out of my collection at home, a turtle an ex gave me, and some tea my father bought for me in junior year.

This shelf has become an extension of me—my beings, my passions, and my memories. I hope sharing it with you extended that feeling of warmth and self even further.

Headshot of Saturn against a light green background with a row of crystal beads. Saturn is wearing a white lace dress, their curly hair down and they have necklaces on. In the photo, they are smiling.

Saturn Browne (she/they) is a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant and the Connecticut Youth Poet Laureate, East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) Artist-in-Residence, and the author of BLOODPATHS. Her work has been recognized by Gone Lawn, GASHER, Beaver Mag, The Pulitzer Center, Foyle Young Poets, and others. She is an incoming student at Yale University.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton

This selection, chosen by guest editor Sierra Farrare, is from I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead by Natalie Easton (Femme Salvé Books 2022).

Laws of Motion

Hunting season you’d slow down & honk
to a bevy of flipped white tails, angry

flashes of orange. That’s how the memory
begins, as if it started there: a small town

cliché. Your boyfriend went crazy, pulled
a gun on us one night—I remember

the bullets on top of the fridge, how your cat
went missing. Other than that it’s scattered,

like our police reports. My wet nose &
oil-gloss eyes in the neighbor’s kitchen;

I was a doe, all limbs & prickly hair.
At the head of the drive, in the flashing lights,

I moved in; you pushed me back. For every
action, an equal & opposite—that much

still makes sense. There are those who
let things go: kids with balloons, to see how far

they’ll fly; Buddhas & saints; the dying before
they leave. I am not these—I remember:

his gun, the beam of his flashlight, the sound
of the door you slammed to save me. & then

the recurring dreams: I could not find my class.
I woke to become the homeless girl thumbing

ten dollars in the cereal aisle,
                        going to school to drop Spanish III.

Natalie Easton’s poems have appeared in such publications as Jet Fuel Review, Superstition Review, and tinywords. She was nominated for a Pushcart in 2014, and was a contributor at Bread Loaf in 2015. Her debut chapbook, I’ll Buy You a Bird Instead, was published by Femme Salvé Books on November 9th, 2022.


Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter.