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Glass Jaw
Winner of the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry, Glass Jaw is a gripping, Dantaen rendering of a young woman's physical and spiritual trials in the boxing ring. Striking and big-hearted, Glass Jaw depicts the grit and glamor of women’s boxing based on the poet's time training as a fighter in New York City. Beginning on the ropes, fighting back against the limitations of gender, Raisa Tolchinsky situates us within the dynamic context of the boxing gym, through both a chorus of named women boxers and a single fighter battling for her selfhood. In a Dantean reimagining, we follow the boxer as she descends into the hellish “rings” of an abusive relationship with her coach. In a count-down from 34 to 1, sputtering at times, the fighter gets closer and closer to the heart of her brutal, solitary metamorphosis. Winner of the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry, Glass Jaw explores a quest as spiritual as it is physical through poems that are muscular, musical, ecstatic.
- GenresPoetry
71 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2024
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62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 13, 2025
Poetry about women boxing, original, vivid, compelling. The first section’s leaping-off point is from Juvenal’s Diatribe on Women Gladiators, “How can a woman be decent, sticking her head in a helmet, denying the sex she was born with?” The subsequent poems introduce us to the experiences of a range of boxers, punctuated by untitled poems that embed and disguise Juvenal’s words. The second half of this slim volume, Here This Hollow Space, is a series of 34 cantos focused on the impact on one one young boxer of her relationship with her abusive male coach.
“I blushed like I had already been hit when she slipped that cotton baton
into my pocket between bells, though why was I ashamed our bodies emptied
without breaking? I rinsed blood from my hands and Coach parted the ropes,
Make him forget what you are. We never sparred the boys yet
he looked at me like the rib we had stolen was between my eyes.
Then hit so hard I heard a sound like fishing hooks in a drawstring bag
(no one really sees stars glittering above them, the dark begins at the ankles, then
zips up) - he waited to say I can’t hit a girl until I was already on the ground.
What ails you, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
Most of the boys had seen a body bleed almost everywhere a body could
and never did I see them wince: not at the tooth wedged into the mat,
or the face shifted into a Picasso painting, or a pupil pummeled red.
Still, the fight stopped quick as the moment
God returned the Red Sea only to part it again.
What are the rules for that?”
“I blushed like I had already been hit when she slipped that cotton baton
into my pocket between bells, though why was I ashamed our bodies emptied
without breaking? I rinsed blood from my hands and Coach parted the ropes,
Make him forget what you are. We never sparred the boys yet
he looked at me like the rib we had stolen was between my eyes.
Then hit so hard I heard a sound like fishing hooks in a drawstring bag
(no one really sees stars glittering above them, the dark begins at the ankles, then
zips up) - he waited to say I can’t hit a girl until I was already on the ground.
What ails you, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
Most of the boys had seen a body bleed almost everywhere a body could
and never did I see them wince: not at the tooth wedged into the mat,
or the face shifted into a Picasso painting, or a pupil pummeled red.
Still, the fight stopped quick as the moment
God returned the Red Sea only to part it again.
What are the rules for that?”
May 10, 2024
boxing poetry - just my perfect amount of niche
April 21, 2024
i’m once again trying to describe poems i’ve seen from workshop to printed page and it’s no easy task. luminous and lovely—poems about pain and power and hell and boxing. if anyone can pull it all together, it’s raisa
March 19, 2025
WOAH! I think I just found my newest literary obsession. I first must say that Tolchinsky’s combination of boxing and Dante Alighieri in the “Canto” section is incredibly genius, as she hints at exploring the different circles of hell through these ranges of traumatic experience.
On a separate note, I have never read or connected with a poetry book more than I have with “Glass Jaw”. I really enjoyed the way it reads like a disjointed story, as opposed to a semi-related collection of ideas, which is how I end up feeling about most poetry books. I’m so thankful that my teacher made me aware of Tolchinsky, because I will definitely be reading more of her work in the future!
On a separate note, I have never read or connected with a poetry book more than I have with “Glass Jaw”. I really enjoyed the way it reads like a disjointed story, as opposed to a semi-related collection of ideas, which is how I end up feeling about most poetry books. I’m so thankful that my teacher made me aware of Tolchinsky, because I will definitely be reading more of her work in the future!
August 2, 2024
really stunning debut, this one. so intentional.
content warnings for sexual assault & abuse.
content warnings for sexual assault & abuse.
May 7, 2024
This is a beautiful collection of poems. Tolchinsky's writing is deeply honest and introspective with so much grit and pain and power in her words. Highly recommend to read.
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June 5, 2024Women boxers and a Dante-esque descension into the "rings." Raisa starts with a quote "How can a woman be decent, sticking her head in a helmet, denying the sex she was born with?" which she riffs off in many of her poems that un-erase, or do the opposite of erasure, to compose something around the words in this quote. Other poems in this section are personas of other boxers, giving a kind of Greek chorus or circle of solidarity for the protagonist's journey.
Then begins the descent into hell, which chronicles an abusive relationship, but I think what's most explicit in these poems is the fighting in the ring and fighting to hold on to one's self as layers are peeled back. Its imagery is violent, but in a way that spotlights women's anger and strength.
An interesting read and it made me want to pick up Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel about teenage girl boxers, which has been on my list, as a companion piece. Both seem to center on violence and trauma but look at what this kind of ferocity can be used for other than destruction.
Then begins the descent into hell, which chronicles an abusive relationship, but I think what's most explicit in these poems is the fighting in the ring and fighting to hold on to one's self as layers are peeled back. Its imagery is violent, but in a way that spotlights women's anger and strength.
An interesting read and it made me want to pick up Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel about teenage girl boxers, which has been on my list, as a companion piece. Both seem to center on violence and trauma but look at what this kind of ferocity can be used for other than destruction.
April 15, 2024
In the poem 'Jess [It Does Not Matter]', a little girl who seems to want to box, watches the speaker as she shadowboxes. The speaker responds, "I want her to flick her fists into the sun like she's strong enough to dent it. I want her to make the sun a donut and look through it into another world where my friend has never called me today, weeping, where I have not had to wonder what it is I must say."
As the reader, I immediately know my moment, and I have to put the book down to dry my eyes. At this point in my life, most women I know have been on one or sadly both sides of that conversation; I mostly don't think about it.
Tolchinsky takes us to places that ache, but she does not leave us alone there. She uses voices of women boxers and a Coach, at times fraught relationships are the teacher but through it all Tolchinsky charts a way in and through. The language is searing, but in turn can make you smile. You can easily imagine the random New York stranger yelling, "You don't belong here you smiling bitch." The path through this interior is neither simple nor pat. "Grip the railing, dear one." Tolchinsky leads us by example spiraling into herself noting the mess, the gorgeous shards along the way, at times the horror too, yet her path is clear.
This collection is a study in understanding self, experience and voice. The more I read and reread these poems, the more connections I see and want to understand.
My advice? Read it.
As the reader, I immediately know my moment, and I have to put the book down to dry my eyes. At this point in my life, most women I know have been on one or sadly both sides of that conversation; I mostly don't think about it.
Tolchinsky takes us to places that ache, but she does not leave us alone there. She uses voices of women boxers and a Coach, at times fraught relationships are the teacher but through it all Tolchinsky charts a way in and through. The language is searing, but in turn can make you smile. You can easily imagine the random New York stranger yelling, "You don't belong here you smiling bitch." The path through this interior is neither simple nor pat. "Grip the railing, dear one." Tolchinsky leads us by example spiraling into herself noting the mess, the gorgeous shards along the way, at times the horror too, yet her path is clear.
This collection is a study in understanding self, experience and voice. The more I read and reread these poems, the more connections I see and want to understand.
My advice? Read it.
April 4, 2025
A collection poems about boxing, love, desire, the female body, trauma, and survival.
from Delia: "In here, / we don't owe him anything, // mirror and hydrangeas, / blood and white tea eau de toilette, / pantyhose, blazer slicked back // ponytail so convincing I almost forget / your jab in the first round stung / my cheek into a smile. I love you, // all of you and your 100 uppercuts / to the gut I got for Christmas— / that's the deal and I don't mind // your hands my ribs your mouth / (my mouth, we don't speak of that)."
from Kira: "In the ring / they called us / different names / but we were / both inside it / until we weren't: / outside my house / she pressed / her mouth to mine / still bleeding / from the fight / and for a moment / with my title belt / sparkling under all / those streetlights / I felt like I could love / her like a person / instead of a fighter / in between rounds."
from Delia: "In here, / we don't owe him anything, // mirror and hydrangeas, / blood and white tea eau de toilette, / pantyhose, blazer slicked back // ponytail so convincing I almost forget / your jab in the first round stung / my cheek into a smile. I love you, // all of you and your 100 uppercuts / to the gut I got for Christmas— / that's the deal and I don't mind // your hands my ribs your mouth / (my mouth, we don't speak of that)."
from Kira: "In the ring / they called us / different names / but we were / both inside it / until we weren't: / outside my house / she pressed / her mouth to mine / still bleeding / from the fight / and for a moment / with my title belt / sparkling under all / those streetlights / I felt like I could love / her like a person / instead of a fighter / in between rounds."
December 28, 2024
Deftly written poetry sequence that uses the well worn paths of the boxing ring and Dante’s Divine Comedy as descent into self knowledge, meditating on violence, the female body, sexuality, sexism, transgression and love. I was reminded of both Mann’s Magic Mountain and of poetic AIDS narratives. And The New Testament (knowledge through renunciation).
July 7, 2024
STUNNING. Ive not read a book like this ever!!! Told such beautiful stories through the lens of the authors days of boxing and training. Absolutely incredible. I dog-eared soooo many poems. A thousand perfect will be reading this over and over.
April 7, 2024
A gorgeous debut that speaks to the many ways we punish -- and transcend -- our bodies. These poems will stay with me.
June 29, 2024
I rarely finish poetry books but I ate this up. the first half was my favorite, but I also came to enjoy the Cantos. shout out to my librarian who recommended this to me!!
August 17, 2024
This is really good.
March 31, 2025
Incredibly beautiful, you finish and you want to start over again.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews