Girl Dinner by Jamie Kitts

There’s something just so nice about a new chapbook with a fun cover. Girl Dinner by Jamie Kitts, a collection of poems largely focused on food and the ways it connects to different ways of being and experiences, has a cover illustrated by New Brunswick artist Dawn Mockler. I knew that I would enjoy this. I was not mistaken.

I knew that I would enjoy this. I was not mistaken … Girl Dinner is a very full and rich collection of poems.

Despite its chapbook length, Girl Dinner is a very full and rich collection of poems. Kitts plays with the forms of recipes in a number of poems, using the structure of the ingredients or list of steps to structure other, more tender thoughts. The opening poem, “Are Cookies Still Cookies Without Milk or Eggs?” is a brilliant start: Kitts explores her fears around telling her family about being trans, and wonders if her grandmother would accept her:

½ tsp salt

               (I think if she could accommodate my life-threatening allergies,)

2 cups semi-sweet dark chocolate chips

               (and all my other quirks,)

bake 350° F 8-10 mins

               (I think she’d accept any life-affirming procedures.)

And this beauty is only a taste of the emotional story-telling packed into Girl Dinner. “Sushi Date,” uses lines and Os to make it look like a row of sushi rolls are being eaten. “Memory Storage Server” is a collection of references, making another shadow poem in the footnotes. This is an inventive collection, serious but also joyful in creating the form of each poem. If you can get your hands on a copy of this chapbook, it’s more than worth your time to sit with it.

Read an interview with Jamie Kitts on our Patreon!

Jamie Kitts is a transfeminine poet living on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Wolastoqiyik People. She is also the Managing Editor and Homerow Chapbook Series Editor of Qwerty Magazine, where you can find her joint chapbook All Things to Keep You Here by Egg Poets. Her first solo chapbook, Girl Dinner, is forthcoming with Emergency Flash Mob Press.

Publisher: Emergency Flash Mob Press

Alison Manley

Website

Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.