SAPPHICS, by Caitlyn Alario

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features. SAPPHICS is sapphic in both form and content; a series of sapphic stanzas, this collection explores the expansiveness of queer identity through relationships and experiences that shape one speaker’s understanding of her orientation, not only sexually but more broadly, to and in the world. The poems in this collection are concerned with attention and the ways that relationships, however they may or may not be defined, might sharpen, alter, or redirect one’s way of seeing the world. From childhood crushes to one night stands, SAPPHICS bears witness to the enduring messiness of love in all its forms. At its core, this collection serves as a testament that no relationship, however fleeting, however painful, however undefinably felt leaves us without some new understanding of ourselves, the world, and our place in it. Caitlyn Alario is a queer poet from California. She received a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in North Texas, where she ghostwrites, edits, and tutors writers of all ages and experience. Her creative and critical work has appeared in Vallum, Third Coast, Annulet, and elsewhere.