{"product_id":"pitiful-poems-9781487014087","title":"Pitiful: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"This poem begins where Bulimia ends\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eor maybe, just maybe, when it started. Where\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ethe differential diagnosis is confused\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eby decades of self-made violence. Poverty, \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ecolonialism, god, all prisms that will shatter\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eone day, if not now...\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePart self-interrogation, part confession, part hospital diary, the intense, heartbreakingly frank poems in Brandi Bird's second collection detail the author's ongoing struggles with eating disorders and depression, conditions that disproportionately afflict Indigenous girls, women, and two-spirited persons. These challenging poems investigate the relationship between sexuality and eating disorders as well as how the voyeurism of religion (the idea of being eternally watched) intersects with both of those spheres. They also raise questions about body shaming and body sovereignty--a failed sovereignty in this case, as \"sovereignty\" itself is a communal concept. In the tradition of poets like Amy Berkowitz (\u003cem\u003eTender Points\u003c\/em\u003e) and Hannah Green (\u003cem\u003eXanax Cowboy\u003c\/em\u003e), the poems in \u003cem\u003ePitiful\u003c\/em\u003e also lay bare the way patriarchy, medical sexism, and bigotry have not only sabotaged the treatment of such conditions but often make them worse.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBird, Brandi:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBRANDI BIRD\u003c\/strong\u003e is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree, and Métis writer and editor from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, the Tsleil-Waututh, and the Musqueam peoples (Surrey, B.C). Their debut poetry collection, \u003cem\u003eThe All + Flesh\u003c\/em\u003e (Anansi, 2023), won an Indigenous Voices Award and was a finalist for both the Gerald Lampert and the Governor General's awards. Brandi Bird is currently completing an MFA at the University of British Columbia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"House of Anansi Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52197405163794,"sku":"9781487014087","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_61151222-5f2f-4d35-a76a-e1d83071168c.jpg?v=1776167078","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/pitiful-poems-9781487014087","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}