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Squirming
An intimate collection where the domestic, sexual, and cerebral entangle.
Monika Ostrowska’s provocative, plainspoken debut tracks its speaker’s intensifying sexual fantasies as they become at once more intellectualized and embodied, tracing a desperate need for enlightenment. Squirming is a primal meditation on embracing the erotic, challenging the complexities of womanhood, and bridging the chasm between self-awareness and external perception.
Monika Ostrowska’s provocative, plainspoken debut tracks its speaker’s intensifying sexual fantasies as they become at once more intellectualized and embodied, tracing a desperate need for enlightenment. Squirming is a primal meditation on embracing the erotic, challenging the complexities of womanhood, and bridging the chasm between self-awareness and external perception.
123 pages, Paperback
Published April 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2026
“I told myself don’t forget
I didn’t have a way to write it down
I did forget, but not the feeling
Of euphoria at being myself again,
not only noticing, but appreciating…
I have a nomadic lost self I reference constantly
I wonder, am I still her?”
A NEW book from Coffee House Press and wow, it delivers!
“There are some moments / too tender to witness” yet despite that you’ll find yourself become more emboldened by this intimate poetry collection. You’ll find an urgency towards understanding agency and how “saying something / so specific and true yet forgotten / out of nowhere is / magical.” Get ready to be intensely present when you read this book! ✨
“I consumed everything / every bit”
“There was just a feeling that came over us”
“The way we wanted it to continue”
“The right balance of gratitude and entitlement
Probably doesn’t exist”
“I don’t like being begged
because I like to be convinced, I hate when someone reminds
me of someone who’s hurt my feelings…”
“And you should know,
I’m going to be a daughter my whole life
I’ve withstood worse for worse
I’ve withstood pain for nothing
I have come a long way
But not long enough…”
“I don’t regret something that isn’t perfect
I regret it if it wasn’t worth it”
“The world is being ruined because of language in a way
Everyone wants to be the one to say something the best
Or to be the one who
Convinces when they speak”
“Why can’t anyone accept adulthood
Why can’t anyone identify as an adult”
“… I want to fall in love again but
I think I will never fall in love again, I’d never let anyone impose
a limit on my life again, that’s what love is, the realization that
you’re limited now, that constriction is the bitter in the word
bittersweet, the rest of being in love is the sweet…”
& so many more lines & poems all tabbed up — a debut that is fearless in being alive! 🌟💯
I didn’t have a way to write it down
I did forget, but not the feeling
Of euphoria at being myself again,
not only noticing, but appreciating…
I have a nomadic lost self I reference constantly
I wonder, am I still her?”
A NEW book from Coffee House Press and wow, it delivers!
“There are some moments / too tender to witness” yet despite that you’ll find yourself become more emboldened by this intimate poetry collection. You’ll find an urgency towards understanding agency and how “saying something / so specific and true yet forgotten / out of nowhere is / magical.” Get ready to be intensely present when you read this book! ✨
“I consumed everything / every bit”
“There was just a feeling that came over us”
“The way we wanted it to continue”
“The right balance of gratitude and entitlement
Probably doesn’t exist”
“I don’t like being begged
because I like to be convinced, I hate when someone reminds
me of someone who’s hurt my feelings…”
“And you should know,
I’m going to be a daughter my whole life
I’ve withstood worse for worse
I’ve withstood pain for nothing
I have come a long way
But not long enough…”
“I don’t regret something that isn’t perfect
I regret it if it wasn’t worth it”
“The world is being ruined because of language in a way
Everyone wants to be the one to say something the best
Or to be the one who
Convinces when they speak”
“Why can’t anyone accept adulthood
Why can’t anyone identify as an adult”
“… I want to fall in love again but
I think I will never fall in love again, I’d never let anyone impose
a limit on my life again, that’s what love is, the realization that
you’re limited now, that constriction is the bitter in the word
bittersweet, the rest of being in love is the sweet…”
& so many more lines & poems all tabbed up — a debut that is fearless in being alive! 🌟💯
May 21, 2026
The perfect combination of angry, horny, kinky, resentful, and appreciative
September 8, 2026
Nothing like casually body-shaming men and calling it poetry.
You will enjoy this if you don't know BDSM and rough sex have been things for a long time, and enjoy descriptions of tights.
"and he eventually placed a hand on my thigh, I was wearing tights, and so his skin went through the little tiny squares in my tights that all tights have"
This is not me nit-picking a singular bad line. The entire collection consists of the surface-level observations and metaphors.
The back claimed it would be "AN INTIMATE COLLECTION WHERE THE DOMESTIC, SEXUAL, AND CEREBRAL ENTANGLE." The capitalization theirs, not mine.
I paid $20 for this, and I'm not happy.
You will enjoy this if you don't know BDSM and rough sex have been things for a long time, and enjoy descriptions of tights.
"and he eventually placed a hand on my thigh, I was wearing tights, and so his skin went through the little tiny squares in my tights that all tights have"
This is not me nit-picking a singular bad line. The entire collection consists of the surface-level observations and metaphors.
The back claimed it would be "AN INTIMATE COLLECTION WHERE THE DOMESTIC, SEXUAL, AND CEREBRAL ENTANGLE." The capitalization theirs, not mine.
I paid $20 for this, and I'm not happy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews