DEED

by torrin a. greathouse

DEED, the follow-up to torrin a. greathouse's 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award winning debut, Wound from the Mouth of a Wound, is a formally and lyrically innovative exploration of queer sex and desire, and what it can cost. Sprawling across art, eros, survival, myth, etymology, and musical touchstones from Bruce Springsteen to Against Me!, this new book both subverts and pays homage to the poetic canon, examining an artistic lineage that doesn't always love trans or disabled people back. Written in a broad range of received and invented forms—from caudate sonnets and the sestina, to acrostics and the burning haibun—DEED indicts violent systems of carceral, medical, and legal power which disrupt queer and disabled love and solidarity, as well as the potentially vicarious manner in which audiences consume art. This collection is a poetic triptych centered on the question of how, in spite of all these complications, to write an honest poem about desire. At its core, DEED is a reminder of how tenderness can be made a shield, a weapon, or a kind of faith, depending on the mouth that holds it.

[sample text]

from Etymythology

I'm clocked by etymology,

by the way even stilettos take their namefrom a knife. The way a knife, well-honed,can strip anything to the bone. Bear

with me, sometimes even the myths growblurry in the distance. The root of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, is still unknown,

but likely comes from artamos—butcher. Let's call this a kind of etymythology,post hoc history; let's call Artemis

the root. For her wild heart. Her failedfemininity. Goddess of gender-fuckedgirls. Crooked prayer. The word worship

is shaped from two shards—meaning worth & its giving. A mouth gives faith shape like clay. I mean that to pray is to god

a God. To be butch & butcher the myth of a son, was to makea goddess of myself.

Genres: Poetry, Disability, Queer, Transgender, LGBT

108 pages, Hardcover

Published August 20, 2024

About the author

torrin a. greathouse is a transgender cripple-punk and MFA candidate at the University of Minnesota. She is a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. In 2020, they received fellowships from Zoeglossia and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Their work is published in POETRY, Ploughshares, and The Kenyon Review. Her debut collection Wound from the Mouth of a Wound was published from Milkweed Editions in December 2020.

Reviews

[silas denver melvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i finished this entire collection in one sitting. i cannot wait to see what i can catch on the second, third, fourth, etc reads. i also cannot wait to see what more greathouse does. the next collection, the next publication, i am ready to read it all.

there is something here for everyone. i want people to not only look at these poems, but know these poems look back. i am asking you to be looked at by these poems. they unsettle and they comfort: the mark of a highly skilled poet. to be moved after a poem, to feel fundamentally changed; deed delivers in spades. i got goosebumps from several poems.

i would also like to say the book itself is very beautiful. the floral divider pages are gorgeous. very very happy to add it to my shelf.

[JuniperScerry♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute NECESSITY to read.
I had to slap this shut over and over and frantically crawl back in because of how fucking poignant Torrins writing is.
The best collection of poetry I've ever read, and I need all of my friends to read this ASAP.

[Hannah D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read ANYTHING that torrin a. greathouse writes & be so thankful for it!! Every poem in this collection is outstanding. Devoured this in one sitting & immediately had to go back and reread some of the poems because they were so striking. Will be recommending this to everyone I know!! A must read collection of poetry

[arden · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved her cleave tankas

"we know we can't keep making brides of each other nightly & divorcing in the sun"

[Mya Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You woke this morning, drew / breath like a blade from a sheath.”

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about love, sex, desire, queerness, trans bodies, and survival.

from Etymythology: "Just beautiful enough to vanish / in a crowd, to make myself less // of a target. I never wanted it, though. / I came by butch dishonestly, by way of / verb, not noun—gender a performance // I'm always butchering."

from Aubade Beginning in Handcuffs: "Hunger's vocabulary is a fickle // thing. How many lovers have said that / they adore me, but meant instead they say / in me a door? Language shifts an image // like the light."

from Belt is Just Another Verb for Song: "Mark how muscle fiber / & piano string both, when struck, ring. // No music without violence or wind. // I've been searching the backs of lover's hands / for a kinder score, a pain that makes // my pain a stranger tune. Still, my body aches / an ugly psalm."

[Brynn Hilliker · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a post transgender-tipping-point world, it's refreshing to engage with art made by trans people for trans people. torrin a. greathouse's poetry is full of etymology, greek mythology, and explorations of gender, disability, desire, sadomasochism, and all of their contradictions and loose ends. Rather than beg for a seat at the cis, able bodied table, greathouse forges their own path, representative of the movement of modern trans art away from visibility politics.

[Gunnar Lundberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

torrin’s integration of etymology, theory, current events, and personal experience are woven in a way that speaks to her command of craft. Deed is a stunning follow-up to their debut collection!

[April Lundquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

my fucking god, so good

[Philbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.
Some of the poems are incredible, and some are unfortunately kind of meh.

[Tonee Mae Moll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. One of my favorite collections I’ve read in a couple years.

[Carina Stopenski · Rating 5 out of 5]

greathouse makes magic of words in ways i literally never thought possible

[AJ Lonski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torrin doesn’t miss

Beautifully written poetry on the lived trans / disabled experience

[Jay Kinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

read all over the course of today, overall enjoyed it and was compelled by the threads of etymology...

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

DEED is exactly the type of poetry collection I love to read or, in this case, devour. The poems meditate on the intersections of queerness (especially transness), sex, love, desire, and disability.

Queer, disabled love is seldom portrayed in the media. To a large portion of mainstream society, love and desire suddenly become taboo when associated with disabled folks. torrin a. greathouse takes this outdated notion and deconstructs it with DEED.

Greathouse has earned themself a life-long fan with this incredible collection of poetry. Thank you so much to Wesleyan University Press for my review copy! DEED was recently published last month on 8/20. I cannot recommend this collection enough to do it justice!