Aimee Herman Knihy

In this LGBTQ+ YA coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl grapples with the suicide of a classmate and her mother's depression, while discovering her own gender fluidity and sexual identity.

Evelyn Zaleson was the youngest of eight children. Like most parents in America during the 1930s, for Evelyn's father, the newly naturalized citizen Jacob Zaleson, the overriding objective was to provide a dry roof over his family's heads, plenty of food for the table, and the very best for his children. Unfortunately, Jacob was limited in what he could provide by his meager earnings from a slaughterhouse as an assembly line butcher. His American born wife, Marsha, many years his junior, was a stay-at-home mom. Together, they prioritized the needs of their four sons, because sons could always be expected to support and care for their parents in their old age. By comparison, they believed that their only responsibility to their four daughters was to actively search out rich husbands for them. One by one, Evelyn watched her older siblings be introduced and married off to their life partners and begin raising families of their own. "When will it be my turn?" she kept asking. Then she met Benjamin.

Exploring themes of identity, gender, memory, and body image, this poetry collection captivates with its blend of surprise, humor, and intimacy. Aimee Herman's work invites readers on a personal journey, encouraging a deeper understanding of one's own identity. The poems reflect a dynamic style, drawing inspiration from the forms of Cummings, the directness of Bukowski, and the playfulness of Kerouac. Herman emphasizes breaking away from conventional structures to discover new perspectives, aiming for a transformative experience in the realm of poetry.