Let Want Be Hunger

by Nina Nicole Garner

Let Want Be Hunger is a collection that devours the reader and refuses to be tamed. These poems explore the brutality of survival be it bodily, emotional, or systemic. Let Want Be Hunger allows desire and deprivation to blur into one. Women’s bodies are battlefields, hunger is both need and weapon, and submission is a lie sold under the guise of salvation. Through visceral language, mythological reclamation, and unflinching critique, this collection dismantles the forces that demand misogyny, economic violence, medical neglect, generational trauma, and forced compliance.

Here, hunger is more than emptiness—it is a demand, a reckoning. Teeth sink into love and loss alike, the dead are never quiet, and even survival has a price. Whether through the transformation of Clytie into a sunflower, the weight of a poverty-wracked nation, or the final defiant bite of an apple, Let Want Be Hunger is a manifesto of desire and refusal. No one leaves untouched. No one leaves full.

66 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

Reviews

[Nicholas Grooms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible collection with lots of poems that live in your mind after you’ve read them. My personal favorites were “thigh high”, “sinks”, “women who birthed your bloodline” and “the parasite class”. Terrific read by an amazing poet and human being. My advice to you is grab this book immediately!