In Paisley Rekdal's latest collection, the body and its meanings are ever shifting--it is, at once, a legacy, an obligation, and a means of generating more bodies. Summoning memories of parents, former partners, and children both real and hypothetical, Heritance examines the personal and familial shames we inherit. Can something so ephemeral as memory be owned? In what ways do we become complicit in the political values of our families, our nations, and our chosen--or assumed--communities? Here, Rekdal grapples with the inevitable loss of loved ones and relationships, but also of climate change and social evolution--asking what values we choose to preserve, and which ones we will reinvent for a new era. Meditating on race, violence, and lineage, Rekdal challenges the reader to contextualize their perspective within the corporeal, and to question what it means to love outside of "the lens of someone else's imagining."
SEPTEMBER 8, 2026. PRE-ORDER HERE
SAMPLE POEMS
"What Is the Smell of a Circle?"
MEDIA