Backlit

by Liz Robbins

In Backlit, Liz Robbins pulls us beneath the fluorescence of a Florida night, where palms sway in the wind and the air thickens with danger. These poems speak in the raw voices of sex workers who navigate power plays like intersections, where every choice costs something and trust is both weapon and wound. Along the strip motels and sun-bleached parking lots, fear hums under the skin, and each transaction teeters between endurance and surrender—measured in minutes, cash, and control. Robbins makes beauty out of this tension, her poems burning with heat and exhaustion, lit by the fragile voltage of power, risk, and the constant gamble of survival.

Genres: Poetry

44 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2025

Reviews

[Carrie Cantalupo-Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex workers in brutal but real world. She did her homework well. I’m going to now re-read it and read her other works.

[Peter Longden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This chapbook came with the latest edition of Rattle poetry. It is remarkable - insightful, chapbook of poems based on interviews with sex workers telling of their extraordinary experiences. The collection shows that poetry is not just for its own sake but to challenge perceptions and offer a platform on which real life can be presented. Liz Robbins does this to great effect.

[Elizabeth Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just learned the term Dirty Realism, defined by Jimmy Pappas as “a North American literary movement that began in the 1970s and '80s. It depicts the mundane and often bleak aspects of ordinary life using a spare, unadorned, and minimalist writing style.” Think Springsteen or the movie Nomads. Think Liz Robbins. These poems were elegant and stark, honest and matter-of-fact. There are a lot of women living these stories. I loved the voice and the different layouts. An excellent addition to a really strong series.

[maddy decarvalho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woahhh, I did not know what to expect with this but wow I loved it. Poems showing the lives of sex workers and not in any way glorifying it, showing the survival aspects of it and just how ugly men can be. This came with a lit mag subscription, so I didn’t know I was getting it nor would I have picked it up myself but I’m really glad I read this!

Lots of really cool experimental forms for the poems too!

Fav poems- dilemmas, war, a little TV, the desperate attract the using, sex worker, family, and hiker.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The voices of whip-smart prostitutes speak through poems that strike me as technically perfect, and offer acute observations of any given transaction with a john or a pimp. There's a lot to absorb.

[Shelly Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really unusual and obviously, the author researched and interviewed many sex workers. It felt very realistic and offered me a new perspective.