I need to preface this by saying I did really like Fat Girl Finishing School. Because I think my review is going to sound like I didn't, but that's not the case.
If I had found this book first, I'd probably be in love with it. Rachel Wiley's work is intense, personal, and her poems--specifically those about being a fat woman--strike a very strong chord with me. Unfortunately, I read Nothing is Okay first, which spoiled this a bit. In comparison, FGFS seems a bit unpolished. The poems are good, but seem to still be struggling with style. I didn't find them to be as strikingly specific. Some of them feel like very very good class assignments. They're great, but not not transcendent the way NIO is.
I'd recommend reading this, just because it does contain some real gems, and because I think it shows the clear progression and development that happened in between Fat Girl Finishing School and Nothing Is Okay.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Friday, January 18, 2019
CBR11 #2 - YES. THIS. -- Nothing is Okay by Rachel Wiley
I have a confession to make: I am a monster. No, not the kind who stampedes through Tokyo (though #goals) or the kind that lurks outside your window at night. I am dog-earer. I know, a shiver ran up the spine of book lovers everywhere--I could feel you all cringing. I know, it's a bad habit. But when I read (poetry especially) I like to be able to mark the page where I found something really striking, so I can double back and find it later. When it comes to my books, a turned down corner means "HERE! THERE'S SOMETHING IMPORTANT HERE!"
I'm telling you this dirty secret of mine so that you'll understand what it means when I say that by the time I got through Nothing Is Okay, nearly every other page had a bent corner. Some were bent over twice because there was something valuable to me on both sides of a single page.
I discovered Rachel Wiley after someone posted a video of her performing her poem "Ten Honest Thoughts On Being Loved By A Skinny Boy," and I knew immediately that I had to have more.
These poems are personal and specific, but speak to the broader experience of existing as a woman in today's society. They are by turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, sometimes both at the same time. I laughed out loud at many examples of her dating travails (as a fellow Tinderer, the Rejection Letter poems were a delight) and also cried when faced with "Letter to My Cat," knowing (because I follow her IG like a weirdo) that Clementine passed away last year. Wiley's turn of phrase makes every poem shine, and the way she opens up her own emotional wounds for inspection makes this book feel very intimate. It's a bottle of wine with the funny, empathetic, strong bestie we all wish we had. My absolute favorites were the poems which touched on existing as a fat woman in today's society. "Fat Joke" was a stiletto straight to my heart, and I want to staple a copy to the forehead of...everyone, pretty much. I don't have the experiences to compare, but I imagine for those who identify as biracial and/or queer, there will be a lot of that same "YES. THIS. I KNOW THIS FEEL." with her poems which touch on those aspects of her life.
So to sum up: buy this book. Buy her other book, Fat Girl Finishing School (which I will be reviewing as soon as it arrives). Go see her perform if she's in your city. Tell your friends. You won't be disappointed.
I'm telling you this dirty secret of mine so that you'll understand what it means when I say that by the time I got through Nothing Is Okay, nearly every other page had a bent corner. Some were bent over twice because there was something valuable to me on both sides of a single page.
I discovered Rachel Wiley after someone posted a video of her performing her poem "Ten Honest Thoughts On Being Loved By A Skinny Boy," and I knew immediately that I had to have more.
These poems are personal and specific, but speak to the broader experience of existing as a woman in today's society. They are by turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, sometimes both at the same time. I laughed out loud at many examples of her dating travails (as a fellow Tinderer, the Rejection Letter poems were a delight) and also cried when faced with "Letter to My Cat," knowing (because I follow her IG like a weirdo) that Clementine passed away last year. Wiley's turn of phrase makes every poem shine, and the way she opens up her own emotional wounds for inspection makes this book feel very intimate. It's a bottle of wine with the funny, empathetic, strong bestie we all wish we had. My absolute favorites were the poems which touched on existing as a fat woman in today's society. "Fat Joke" was a stiletto straight to my heart, and I want to staple a copy to the forehead of...everyone, pretty much. I don't have the experiences to compare, but I imagine for those who identify as biracial and/or queer, there will be a lot of that same "YES. THIS. I KNOW THIS FEEL." with her poems which touch on those aspects of her life.
So to sum up: buy this book. Buy her other book, Fat Girl Finishing School (which I will be reviewing as soon as it arrives). Go see her perform if she's in your city. Tell your friends. You won't be disappointed.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
CBR11 #1 - Writing Internally*: Salt by Nayyirah Waheed
Hi! Gonna try this Cannonball Read thing again. We'll see how it goes...
I received Salt by Nayyirah Waheed as a Christmas gift -- I'd never heard of her or of her poetry before, but I'm always happy to give contemporary poets a try.
There's very little information available online about Waheed herself - I tried to look her up in order to perhaps put her work into context -- but her poetry touches a lot on race, and how the world relates to Africa and Africans. There are some pretty hard-edged critiques about tourist culture, and also about the divide between Africans and African-Americans.
The poems that stuck resonated more for me were those that had to do with personal relationships -- the one in the attached photo in particular really hit me where I live.
However, I will say that as far as micro-poems go (that's what I call these), they're not really my favorites. I do sometimes enjoy the format, but frankly most of these were not evocative enough to really make me feel strongly about them. Many of them felt like stuff you jot down in your phone while riding the train, formatted in an "interesting" way, and then compiled. And while I'm sure the extremely stark design of the book would appeal to many people, it felt very empty to me.
Although a few of them were thought-provoking, I don't really feel like I got as much out of this as I'd like. This one is probably not going to win a place on my already tightly packed poetry shelf.
*“remember,
you were a writer
before
you ever
put
pen to paper.
just because you were not writing
externally.
does not mean you were not writing
internally.”
―
I received Salt by Nayyirah Waheed as a Christmas gift -- I'd never heard of her or of her poetry before, but I'm always happy to give contemporary poets a try.
There's very little information available online about Waheed herself - I tried to look her up in order to perhaps put her work into context -- but her poetry touches a lot on race, and how the world relates to Africa and Africans. There are some pretty hard-edged critiques about tourist culture, and also about the divide between Africans and African-Americans.
The poems that stuck resonated more for me were those that had to do with personal relationships -- the one in the attached photo in particular really hit me where I live.
However, I will say that as far as micro-poems go (that's what I call these), they're not really my favorites. I do sometimes enjoy the format, but frankly most of these were not evocative enough to really make me feel strongly about them. Many of them felt like stuff you jot down in your phone while riding the train, formatted in an "interesting" way, and then compiled. And while I'm sure the extremely stark design of the book would appeal to many people, it felt very empty to me.
Although a few of them were thought-provoking, I don't really feel like I got as much out of this as I'd like. This one is probably not going to win a place on my already tightly packed poetry shelf.
*“remember,
you were a writer
before
you ever
put
pen to paper.
just because you were not writing
externally.
does not mean you were not writing
internally.”
―
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