--Arielle Twist is part of a new generation of young Indigenous writers who are making their mark, not unlike Joshua Whitehead, whose widely acclaimed debut novel Jonny Appleseed we published in 2018 and who published the poetry book full-metal Indigiqueer with Talonbooks in 2017. Arielle is a 23-year-old trans Cree woman originally from Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairies; she now lives on the Canadian east coast where she works as a writer and sex educator.
--Arielle was inspired to write this collection as she worked through her grief following the passing of her grandmother in 2013. Spritual and physical transformation, through metamorphosis and other means, is a frequent theme of her poems, especially as they relate to her as an Indigenous trans woman. The title comes from her ways of dealing with the ramifications of trauma, in how she made it "disintegrate" and thus "dissociated" herself from harm.
--Arielle is inspired by many queer poets and/or poets of color; these include Ocean Vuong, Chen Chen, Jordan Abel, Kai Cheng Thom, Gwen Benaway, and Vivek Shraya. The success of Vivek's poetry book even this page is white (winner of the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans Literature, and now in its fourth printing) attests to the power and popularity of books by trans writers of color.
--The book is edited by Billy Ray Belcourt, the 2018 winner of the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize.
--Arielle is a powerful performer and will be doing readings on the US east coast.
