Hatch

by Jenny Irish

Groundbreaking feminist poems featuring an artificial womb and an apocalyptic futureThe prose poems in Jenny Irish’s newest collection, Hatch, trace the consciousness of an artificial womb that must confront the role she has played in the continuation of the dying of the human species. This apocalyptic vision engages with the most pressing concerns of this contemporary sociopolitical reproductive rights, climate crises, and mass extinction; gender and racial bias in healthcare and technology; disinformation, conspiracy theories, and pseudoscience; and the possibilities and dangers of artificial intelligence. More intimately, Hatch considers questions about how motherhood and its cultural expectations shape female identity. Working with avant strategies, Irish crafts a speculative feminist narrative, excavating and reexamining the aspects of the American experience that should have served as a call to action but have not. Part elegy and part prophecy, Hatch warns of a possible future while speaking to the present moment. 

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2024

Reviews

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant collection and one that feels particularly relevant to today's issues. Irish's poetry cuts and penetrates deeply into your psyche, seeking your heart.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. What an amazing book of poetry. Thanks again to my Rumpus poetry subscription, one of the best gifts I've ever given myself.

Unlike many books, there is a long narrative thread going through this collection: a huge silver metal womb that hosts many fetuses at a time slowly gains mental awareness and finds herself baffled by our weird world (a weird futuristic version of our world). Sooooo many of our real life contradictions and horrifying stances as a society are on display here. It's SO compelling. Such an engaging read!!

[Octavia Cade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this! It's the most interesting poetry collection I've read in ages: prose poems about an apocalyptic future, and the poems coalesce along three strands. First is a sentient artificial submarine womb (exactly as strange as it sounds), second is the extinction of different species, and third is the history of women's reproductive healthcare. The whole is very quietly brutal, a meditation on a world where the ability to reproduce is nearly entirely destroyed, and then rebuilt in odd and transformative ways.

I'm already slated to write a review of this for one magazine, but I can see myself coming back to it again and again, especially for academic work. There are some fascinating comparisons to be made with other examples of speculative fiction...

[Meg Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get a copy of this brilliance by Jenny Irish! Book Review to come up at Publishing Genius!
BIG BIG LOVE! WOW!