This is the Mask: A Book Blog

Thank you NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC of Michelle Awad’s poems “Sudden Seances.”

Michelle Awad writes in a variety of styles; each poem is crafted in such a way as to best present its its message. The line breaks and stanzas force the reader to carefully weigh what they have read. Awad writes poems inspired by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, NASA, and the infamous Myrtles Plantation, among others. There is rage simmering in these poems, but hope, too.
My favorite pieces were “In Which Writing a Poem Anymore is Like Losing my Mom in the Grocery Store;” Musings for Empty Rooms;” and “What is Said Between “Hello” and “Goodbye”,” which has the sense of a found poem to it. Awad’s poems are raw, rough-edged, refusing to be smoothed and tamed into something “polite.”