Livingry

“Leavitt shows us that shrapnel is crucial. The broken invigorating. To collect is not to put back together. To be eternally dormant, emerging, coming out, coming into, a volcano of influence, an endless network of feeling roots. To write a deeply female lyric is not a disorder or a cry for help. To plant, to sew, to take up, to bring care, to call for care is not a biography or an invitation to the room.”

Language as Hex: Gracie Leavitt Interviewed by Lindsay Turner

Leavitt’s language mobilizes emotions — pain and pleasure — deploying an “I” that converses with itself, or no one, while eschewing any linear plot. By operating without narrative logic, this kind of text is intrinsically subversive, unsettling, and, again, as deeply political as it is difficult.