But for I Am a Woman

In , Sophia Stid's work explores the intersection of personal autonomy and deep spiritual connection through the writings and life of Julian of Norwich (ca. 1342-1416), a mystic who was the first woman known to write a book in the English language, "a woman who had herself / declared dead / so she could write." Through this companionship, Stid creates a reliquary of language, poems as physical containers for the sacred, gathered like loose rosary beads from the floorboards. It is through the physical body that these poems eloquently chisel a space for reconciliation and grief-healing, bathing "in water, words, and other lives." "[ ] is filled with too many exquisite lines to count that stopped me in my tracks, but the true success is the work as a whole, the excavation of grief, womanhood, isolation, and freedom across time and difference. The speaker learns from Julian, takes what she can use, and then chooses her own path to freedom."—Emily Temple, LitHub Poetry. Women's Studies.