Description
Book SynopsisCarly Inghram’s poems explore the day-to-day experiences of a Black queer woman who is ceaselessly bombarded with images of mass-consumerism, white supremacy, and sexism, and who is forced, often reluctantly, back indoors and away from this outside chaos. The poems in The Animal Indoors seek to understand and define the boundaries between our inside and outside lives, critiquing the homogenization and increasing insincerity of American culture and considering what safe spaces exist for Black women. The speaker in these poems seeks refuge, working to keep the interior safe until we can reckon with the world outside, until the speaker is able to “unleash the indoor news onto the unclean water elsewhere.” The Animal Indoors won the 2020 CAAPP Book Prize, selected by Terrance Hayes.
Trade Review"In The Animal Indoors interior and exterior worlds blend with lyricism like 'the sudden violence of dry earth rising up in rain.' These poems sing as they please of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Frank Ocean, and America's 'edges flittering in the small light.' Melancholy and joy overlap, clap and slap. The Animal Indoors is full of capacious, capricious edges. This poet straddles worlds. This is a dynamic debut."--Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin
Table of ContentsASSURED ENVIRONMENTS DISAPPEARING INTO A FICTION IRREVERSIBLY FUCKED IT UP FOR A MOMENT EVERYTHING IS SMALL AND FAMILIAR WHITE TIGERS PRAISE POEM WHAT SORT OF ANIMAL ARE YOU THE DETRIMENTAL YEARS OF BECOMING A YOUNG WOMAN NATURE ADAPTED TO LIVE ON THE ROCK THIS WOMAN’S WORK NOT EATING WAS MY SUPERPOWER YOU’LL BE OK OF NO SPECIFIC LIGHT FOR THEY WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM TIMELESS OARS SAVE YOU JUST LAY THERE FLAT LAST NIGHT I SAW A BOAT JUST AS IT WAS EXITING MY PURVIEW FRANK OCEAN’S IVY I FEEL DIRTY TODAY EVERY GIRL WANTS A PINK SKY ANIMAL PRINT PRAISE POEM WHAT DOES THE ARC YOU’RE INSIDE LOOK LIKE THAT WHICH CARRIES BREATH OR THE LIVING WIND RETWEET AMERICA SELF-STORAGE RIGHTEOUS VIOLENCE A DARKNESS INVENTED BY THIRST BAD CHARACTERS COMPETITION: THE REVISIONIST SAND THE REVOLUTION IS EDIBLE RECOVER FROM WHATEVER JUST HAVING FUN THE INFINITELY EFFICIENT BODY AND SO, WE GOT TO BE FOR EACH OTHER WHAT THE OTHER MISSED TRIVIA LISTENING LIQUIFY SOMETIMES U DO UR BEST WORK WHEN U GOT A GUN TO UR HEAD SAYS A MAN PAINTING THE HERMIT CRABS NEED TO BE NEEDED HYPNOSIS IF YOU GO INTO THE FOREST AND KILL AN ANIMAL, NOT ONLY THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AROUND BECOMES SHAKEN, BUT THE TREES ALSO MY DESIRE IS RED THIS MORNING RESTING PLACE AND OTHER SLOGANS
