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Synopses & Reviews
Following the tradition of Nikky Finney, Krista Franklin, and Morgan Parker, Brittany Rogers's Good Dress documents the extravagant beauty and audacity of Black Detroit, Black womanhood, community, class, luxury, materialism, and matrilineage. A nontraditional coming of age, this collection witnesses a speaker coming into her own autonomy and selfhood as a young adult, reflecting on formative experiences. With care and incandescent energy, the poems engage with memory, time, interiority, and community. They also nudge tenderly toward curiosity: What does it mean to belong to a person, to a city? Can intimacy and romance be found outside the heteronormative confines of partnership? And in what ways can the pursuit of pleasure be an anchor that returns us to ourselves?
Review
"An exuberant celebration of Black abundance. . . . there’s nary a reader that will read Brittany’s poetry and remain untouched." -Publishers Weekly
"A once-in-a-generation debut collection. . . . Brittany Rogers is already a legend and the first of a new kind of poet for whom truth is a posture of both the line and the mouth. A poet come to wake us up for good." -Angel Nafis, author of BlackGirl Mansion
"Rogers’ electric debut enfolds us in what we didn’t know we needed to understand about how we can move in the world, to dance and roller skate and cry, to imagine ourselves adorned passionately with life." -Khadijah Queen, author of Anodyne
About the Author
Brittany Rogers is a poet, educator, and lifelong Detroiter. She has work published or forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Four Way Review, Underbelly, Mississippi Review, Lambda Literary, and Oprah Daily. Brittany is a fellow of VONA, The Watering Hole, Poetry Incubator, and Pink Door Writing Retreat. She is editor-in-chief of Muzzle magazine and co-host of VS Podcast.