A Jennifer, A Violet

Jennifer Badot brings a clear-eyed and earthbound lyrical power to the experience of childhood sexual trauma, its often-concomitant phenomenon of adolescent promiscuity, and the grief and rage that roils beneath it all. The girl-then-woman who figures in these potent poems is a "wild knower" who desires to speak amidst societal, generational, and internalized silencing. Over the course of the book, "the poet locates herself" and speaks. In these vivid and often startling poems, Badot writes into the counterpoint and simultaneity of violation and healing, betrayal and devotion, and tenderness and rage. Ultimately, A Violet A Jennifer is Badot's fierce reclamation of self and an offering to the Beauty that saved her and saves us all.