Because You Were Mine

Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae's latest collection of poems explores intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival. It is an intimate look at love, loneliness, and what it costs to survive abuse. Janae explores the aftershocks of the dangerous entanglement of love and possession in parent-child relationships, speaking on behalf of children who were left or harmed. The collection honors survivorship, queer love, parent wounds, trauma, and familial blood.

Format: Hardback
Length: 80 pages
Publication date: 17 August 2023
Publisher: Haymarket Books

In their latest collection of poems, Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner Brionne Janae delves deeply into the unsettling realms of intimate partner violence, queerness, grief, and survival. "I've decided I can't trust anyone who uses darkness as a metaphor for what they fear," poet Brionne Janae writes in this stunning new collection, in which the speaker navigates past and present traumas, interrogates familial and artistic lineages, queer relationships, positions of power, and community.

Because You Were Mine is an intimate exploration of love, loneliness, and the devastating costs of surviving abuse at the hands of those who are supposed to be "protectors." Janae's raw, confessional, image-heavy poems delve into the aftermaths of the dangerous entanglement of love and possession in parent-child relationships. Through this challenging but necessary examination, the collection speaks on behalf of children who were left or harmed as a result of the failures of their parents, their states, and their gods.

Survivors, queer folks, and readers of poetry will find recognition and solace in these deeply wrought poems—poems that honor survivorship, queer love, parent wounds, trauma, and the complexities of familial blood.

Dimension: 228 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781642599497