Unchanged, by Kristen Nuku

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Unchanged is a chapbook that delves into memory, introspection, and the subtleties of everyday life. The poems move between the personal and the universal, pausing on moments that feel both brief and lasting. Using simple language, the collection looks at how the past stays with us and how memory shapes the present. Each poem offers a look at human experience that is sometimes broken, sometimes calm, and always reaching for understanding. At its heart, Unchanged asks readers to think about the steady points in their own lives: the experiences that hold them, the questions that keep returning, and the quiet moments that stay with them. The chapbook spends time in the spaces between thought and feeling, between what is said and what is left unsaid. Rather than seeking resolution, Unchanged embraces presence. It invites readers to slow down, notice small details, and see how meaning lives in the everyday. Kristen Nuku is a poet from Northern California who attended California State University East Bay and earned her BA in Psychology. Living with the struggles of bipolar disorder, poetry has become an outlet among other arts. Her poems often focus on personal reflections and the quiet complexity of human experience, blending emotional honesty with precise imagery and introspection of the human mind. Besides poetry, Kristen enjoys painting and photography.