89%

By Sarah Cooper

89% narrates the love story of a mother and daughter: one has cancer while the other grapples with her sexuality. This collection documents the mother; using her words as quotes, floating between 4 poems. The daughter explores her body as she witnesses her mother and experiences the bodies of other women. While sexuality and disability are central to the formulation of this collection, these poems resist single-issue narratives. We read poems that dismantle authority as the mother seeks refuge away from her doctor and in the body of her daughter. There is humor and lightness when the mother and daughter discuss "lesbian" as an identity. Masculinity is transformed into a cloak as the daughter tries to wear it while enduring loss. This collection asks its audience to sit in the lines of its poems as we listen to the mother and hear the voice of the daughter.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1638040338
• ISBN13: 9781638040330
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: Clemson University Press
• Length: 102 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.0" x 10.0"