Body Language

Starred review from March 21, 2022
Originally published in Catapult magazine, these lyrical and incisive essays cover a wide range of topics related to the human body, including birth, death, race, gender, size, disability, and fertility. In “The Crematorium,” Nina Riggs compares witnessing her mother’s cremation while undergoing her own cancer treatment to “some kind of morbid test drive.” Elsewhere, Destiny O. Birdsong offers a harrowing account of trying to find relief for her chronic illness within a medical system that misunderstands Black women and their pain; Kayla Whaley recounts how she learned to accept her feeding tube after losing the ability to swallow solid food; and A.E. Osworth discusses “the thrill of thirst trapping” as a trans person: “When I chopped my tits off, I could finally look in a mirror. Never before have I wanted a photographic record of what I saw there.” In “Little Pink Feet,” Maggie Tokuda-Hall recalls how she sought solace in baking macarons after undergoing painful fertility treatments and a miscarriage, while Gabrielle Bellot’s “The Year of Breath” reflects on the Covid-19 pandemic and “the systematic eradication of Black and brown bodies like my own by ravenously racist cops.” Marked by the diversity of its contributor’s perspectives and the vibrancy of their prose, this anthology shines.

June 1, 2022

This book of essays all about how society sees bodies of all kinds comes from the archives of Catapult magazine. Former Catapult editor Chung and current executive editor Ortile selected works by 30 authors about their bodies and how they interact with the bodies of others. Destiny O. Birdsong's "Karen Medicine" discusses the lack of understanding of Black female bodies in today's medical world as she seeks to find a better treatment and diagnosis for her autoimmune disorder. "Counting to Ten Without Numbers" is all about how Sarah McEachern copes with a particular form of learning disability, dyscalculia, which makes numbers meaningless to her. Readers will also learn about writers' experiences of transitioning, eating disorders, and medical challenges. Each of the essays speaks eloquently about the particular experience of its author, but readers may also recognize something of themselves in the stories. VERDICT Many readers will be able to identify with at least one of the essays in this wide-ranging collection. Recommended for public libraries and readers who are looking for body positivity resources.--Kristen Stewart

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2022
Editors Chung (All You Can Ever Know, 2018) and Ortile (The Groom Will Keep His Name, 2020) present 30 essays that reveal how diverse bodies "move within (and against) expectations of race, gender, health, and ability." Gabrielle Bellot, a Black trans woman, impressively parallels Black violence and scuba diving in "The Year of Breath," while her suggestion of turning Scheherazade into a verb, "meaning to tell stories to survive," becomes a theme for the entire collection. Bodies are vessels of empowerment despite adversity. Natalie Lima is a Big Beautiful Woman in "Smother Me."" Andrea Ruggirello appreciates an atheist miracle in "On the Camino de Santiago." Destiny O. Birdsong finds loopholes in "Surviving Karen Medicine."" Hannah Walhout stands (very) tall in "Attack of the Six-Foot Woman." Wanting children highlights Karissa Chen's "What I Did for the Chance to Have a Baby Someday," Maggie Tokuda-Hall's "Little Pink Feet," and Marisa Crane's "In Utero, In a Pandemic." Existing children cause understandable concern in Taylor Harris' "A Variant of Unknown Significance" and Austin Gilkeson's "Teshima." Toni Jensen confronts violence against BIPOC women in "Women in the Fracklands;"" survivor Eloghosa Osunde won't play dead in "Don't Let It Bury You." These smart, affecting, and vulnerable essays, chronicling a vast range of experiences, inspire and illuminate.

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