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In Passing
“Beneath this book’s plainspokenness shimmers a lush unrelenting lust—for boys (one in particular) and for being (as much as one can possibly be). Kevin Bertolero’s poems are dreamy missives and musky short films—a cinematic report from the interior of contemporary gay life. At once rooted and restless, this half-travelogue, half-lover’s-whisper of a collection names place after place, lives constantly near or in a body of water. To swim with friends, to consider a painting, to contemplate Time, to daydream dangerously of one day settling down with the perpetually unavailable yet adorable guy—what other verbs are there, really? Always in delicious tension here: the urge to record one’s intimate history versus the need to surrender to the sensual moment. And it’s often the most plainspoken moments that hit hardest: ‘I wonder if you should never wake / or that this week should draw on forever.’ Anyone who’s fallen in love with someone who’s both right next to you and a whole world away understands these lines." — Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
“Bertolero's lyric motor is a machine of great intimacy. Through nostalgic, tumbling, ecstatic, and narrative lines, he evokes some of the greats of the past century—O'Hara, Dlugos, Schuyler—yet his voice and aesthetic concerns are entirely his own. These poems invite us into an almost-always vernal world, where friendship and yearning take precedence. At times, they lean archival and diaristic, recording a life saturated with people and places, glances and embraces and desires. In between, they reveal what the speaker finds holy. This plurality makes for a work brimming with affective resonance—I have felt every single emotional texture outlined here in one way or another. Despite this familiarity, these poems remain fresh and alive, crushing and funny and messy and new. In Passing is a beautiful collection.” — Day Heisinger-Nixon, author of ROOM | ROOM | ROOM
“Kevin hands us this book formed in the rhythms of living. Over the course of what may be a year or a lifetime, oceanic in sincerity and presence, the moments of these poems montage the ephemeral scenes which make a life. Lust, long days at the beach, late nights, laughter. Across its memories and intimacies, In Passing means as it sounds in every way.” — Jack Bachmann, author of dayglo
“The light feels important here…there is such attention paid to it in these poems. Winter sun, summer dusk, blinking blue screens—every poem is so gorgeously lit. Each piece its own cinematic scene. Some feel like film stills, pinning down a perfect moment; some are more like screenshots, capturing an elusive, intimate blur; there are short films and, in the case of "Self Portrait from Behind," an episodic series. Isn't this exactly what poetry collections are for? To make a whole from these flickering parts, each catching the other's light, casting a shadow. So that sex is passed through with sadness, or grief lit up by the memory of lust. This collection does that and then some. I loved every bit of it.” — T.S. Leonard, author of Another Anthem of Fabulous Survival
“Bertolero's lyric motor is a machine of great intimacy. Through nostalgic, tumbling, ecstatic, and narrative lines, he evokes some of the greats of the past century—O'Hara, Dlugos, Schuyler—yet his voice and aesthetic concerns are entirely his own. These poems invite us into an almost-always vernal world, where friendship and yearning take precedence. At times, they lean archival and diaristic, recording a life saturated with people and places, glances and embraces and desires. In between, they reveal what the speaker finds holy. This plurality makes for a work brimming with affective resonance—I have felt every single emotional texture outlined here in one way or another. Despite this familiarity, these poems remain fresh and alive, crushing and funny and messy and new. In Passing is a beautiful collection.” — Day Heisinger-Nixon, author of ROOM | ROOM | ROOM
“Kevin hands us this book formed in the rhythms of living. Over the course of what may be a year or a lifetime, oceanic in sincerity and presence, the moments of these poems montage the ephemeral scenes which make a life. Lust, long days at the beach, late nights, laughter. Across its memories and intimacies, In Passing means as it sounds in every way.” — Jack Bachmann, author of dayglo
“The light feels important here…there is such attention paid to it in these poems. Winter sun, summer dusk, blinking blue screens—every poem is so gorgeously lit. Each piece its own cinematic scene. Some feel like film stills, pinning down a perfect moment; some are more like screenshots, capturing an elusive, intimate blur; there are short films and, in the case of "Self Portrait from Behind," an episodic series. Isn't this exactly what poetry collections are for? To make a whole from these flickering parts, each catching the other's light, casting a shadow. So that sex is passed through with sadness, or grief lit up by the memory of lust. This collection does that and then some. I loved every bit of it.” — T.S. Leonard, author of Another Anthem of Fabulous Survival
106 pages, Paperback
Published July 25, 2025
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About the author
Kevin Bertolero
8 books58 followersKevin Bertolero is the founding editor of both Ghost City Press and & Change, a journal of gay poetry. He holds degrees in literature from Potsdam College and the University of New Hampshire, as well as an MFA from New England College where he currently teaches writing. Kevin is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Love Poems, as well as a nonfiction book Forever in Transition: Queer Futurist Aesthetics in Gay Cinema. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming with Hanging Loose, The Cortland Review, Post Road, Blueline Magazine, Olney Mag, Fourteen Poems, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine.
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October 15, 2025
I adored In Passing. It's so nostalgic and romantic and felt like modern gay life refracted through poetry. I loved feeling like I was seeing life through Kevin's eyes - his love for locations and boys and friendship and gay paintings. I'm already partway through reading it again.
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