As Lightning
Will be published approx. on 10. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
96 pages
978-0-299-36104-4 (ISBN)
Description
Highlighting the prominent and contradictory place children occupy in Western culture, where they are at once cherished and reviled, As Lightning interrogates the nature of childhood itself. Offering multiple pathways through her own past via unexpected means-tests, riddles, word searches, rhyme, and a tour-de-force grouping of choose-your-own-adventure poems-Lenna Mendoza reveals the inherent pitfalls of imposing a narrative on a life.
In a paean to "the stuffed puppy I won't leave," she deftly observes, "we can hold more than we think." This collection traces one multiracial queer girl's experiences of identity, sexuality, trauma, race, gender, and the body itself, in vibrations and resonances that reconfigure these lenses of self-awareness and the limits of our understanding.
In a paean to "the stuffed puppy I won't leave," she deftly observes, "we can hold more than we think." This collection traces one multiracial queer girl's experiences of identity, sexuality, trauma, race, gender, and the body itself, in vibrations and resonances that reconfigure these lenses of self-awareness and the limits of our understanding.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wisconsin
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
1 b-w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 178 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-299-36104-4 (9780299361044)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lenna Mendoza is a poet from Texas living in Tucson, Arizona. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best New Poets, Prairie Schooner, Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts, Quarterly West, Passages North, Four Way Review, Foglifter, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Mississippi.
Content
My Innocence
"I put you into this world, I can take you out"
Mother-Daughter
chorus of dogs
Play Kitchen Recipe for Steak and Potatoes
The Sphinx
Polyfill, or Loss of Appetite
Babble: As Lightning / As Thunder
Because of the Rattling Ceiling Fan
Advent
"A child's brain is like a sponge"
ELA Practice Test #3
Prodigy, or
Mexicans at Rest
Made in America
Lessons on Domesticated Animals
The Sleeper
Trail Guide to the Body (3rd Edition)
How Loudly "Place" Begins Placenta
"Nothing I haven't seen before"
Haunting with Open Mouth
Monoculture
The Body, a Circus Act
Skateland
The Miracle of Life (1983)
Dead Girl's Float
Eve's Sepulcher
Womb Music
You can't really clean the piercing gun at Claire's
"Spare the rod, spoil the child"
Nuclear Family as Overlook Hotel
The Fates
Riddle
The Lice Intervene
No Holds Barred
Cage Match
BOY FLOATS AWAY IN BALLOON
Fontanelle
When I Say Family Abolition
Acknowledgments
Notes
"I put you into this world, I can take you out"
Mother-Daughter
chorus of dogs
Play Kitchen Recipe for Steak and Potatoes
The Sphinx
Polyfill, or Loss of Appetite
Babble: As Lightning / As Thunder
Because of the Rattling Ceiling Fan
Advent
"A child's brain is like a sponge"
ELA Practice Test #3
Prodigy, or
Mexicans at Rest
Made in America
Lessons on Domesticated Animals
The Sleeper
Trail Guide to the Body (3rd Edition)
How Loudly "Place" Begins Placenta
"Nothing I haven't seen before"
Haunting with Open Mouth
Monoculture
The Body, a Circus Act
Skateland
The Miracle of Life (1983)
Dead Girl's Float
Eve's Sepulcher
Womb Music
You can't really clean the piercing gun at Claire's
"Spare the rod, spoil the child"
Nuclear Family as Overlook Hotel
The Fates
Riddle
The Lice Intervene
No Holds Barred
Cage Match
BOY FLOATS AWAY IN BALLOON
Fontanelle
When I Say Family Abolition
Acknowledgments
Notes