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Junebat
Shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award
John Elizabeth Stintzi’s unforgettable debut collection, Junebat, grapples with the pain of uncertainty on the path towards becoming. Set during the year Stintzi lived in deep isolation in Jersey City, NJ, these poems map the depression the poet struggled with as they questioned and came to grips with their gender identity. Through the invention of the Junebat — a contradictory, evolving, ever-perplexing creature — Stintzi is able to create a self-defined space within the poems where they can reside comfortably, beyond the firm boundaries of the gender binary or the plethora of identities gathered under the queer umbrella.
As the speaker of the poems begins to emerge from their depression, the second wing of the book tracks their falling in love with a young woman surfacing from the end of her marriage. Challenging, heartbreaking, soaring, and powerfully new, the poems in Junebat demolish false walls and pull the reader to the dark edges of the mind, showing us how identity doesn’t have to be rigid or static but can be defined by confusion and contradiction, possibility and a metamorphosis that never ends.
John Elizabeth Stintzi’s unforgettable debut collection, Junebat, grapples with the pain of uncertainty on the path towards becoming. Set during the year Stintzi lived in deep isolation in Jersey City, NJ, these poems map the depression the poet struggled with as they questioned and came to grips with their gender identity. Through the invention of the Junebat — a contradictory, evolving, ever-perplexing creature — Stintzi is able to create a self-defined space within the poems where they can reside comfortably, beyond the firm boundaries of the gender binary or the plethora of identities gathered under the queer umbrella.
As the speaker of the poems begins to emerge from their depression, the second wing of the book tracks their falling in love with a young woman surfacing from the end of her marriage. Challenging, heartbreaking, soaring, and powerfully new, the poems in Junebat demolish false walls and pull the reader to the dark edges of the mind, showing us how identity doesn’t have to be rigid or static but can be defined by confusion and contradiction, possibility and a metamorphosis that never ends.
120 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2020
5 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
John Elizabeth Stintzi
17 books142 followersJohn Elizabeth Stintzi is an award-winning trans writer and visual artist who was born and raised on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario, and is currently writing and living in the United States.
They are the winner of the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, the 2019 Long Poem Prize from The Malahat Review, and the inaugural Sator New Works Award from Two Dollar Radio. Their work has been published in places like Ploughshares,Black Warrior Review, PRISM International, Kenyon Review Online, and Best Canadian Poetry.
Their debut novel Vanishing Monuments (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020) was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and their debut poetry collection Junebat (House of Anansi, 2020) was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. Their newest novel, My Volcano (Two Dollar Radio (US) and Arsenal Pulp Press (CA/UK) 2022, Tlon (ITALY) 2023, and Cielo Santo (SPAIN) 2024) and was longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library's 2022 Book Prize for Fiction, and named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, The Independent Review, and others.
Their latest book, a collection of short stories called Bad Houses, came out from Arsenal Pulp Press in 2024. They are currently at work illustrating their first graphic novel: Automaton Deactivation Bureau.
They are the winner of the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, the 2019 Long Poem Prize from The Malahat Review, and the inaugural Sator New Works Award from Two Dollar Radio. Their work has been published in places like Ploughshares,Black Warrior Review, PRISM International, Kenyon Review Online, and Best Canadian Poetry.
Their debut novel Vanishing Monuments (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020) was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award and their debut poetry collection Junebat (House of Anansi, 2020) was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. Their newest novel, My Volcano (Two Dollar Radio (US) and Arsenal Pulp Press (CA/UK) 2022, Tlon (ITALY) 2023, and Cielo Santo (SPAIN) 2024) and was longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library's 2022 Book Prize for Fiction, and named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, The Independent Review, and others.
Their latest book, a collection of short stories called Bad Houses, came out from Arsenal Pulp Press in 2024. They are currently at work illustrating their first graphic novel: Automaton Deactivation Bureau.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 31, 2019
What the heck is a junebat???
August 11, 2020
This collection is an amazing journey through identity exploration, specifically gender, of folding and unfolding, of becoming, of others seeing what you see or feel, and all the emotions and self-doubt that can go along with it. But also there is this junebat....
I like some of the noticing poems too, the small connections the poet is making as they navigate living in the world with these new senses of self - "TO A SUB-HUDSON KINDCORE JERSEY PUNK" is one of my favorites like this.
Other favorites include:
"WHAT IS A BODY IF NOT"
"ORIGA/ME"
You can see Stintzi read from the collection in YouTube, and it starts with the poem about Hale-Bopp, the queer cactus.
I have Stintzi's novel to read too, so I'm even more excited about that now.
I like some of the noticing poems too, the small connections the poet is making as they navigate living in the world with these new senses of self - "TO A SUB-HUDSON KINDCORE JERSEY PUNK" is one of my favorites like this.
Other favorites include:
"WHAT IS A BODY IF NOT"
"ORIGA/ME"
You can see Stintzi read from the collection in YouTube, and it starts with the poem about Hale-Bopp, the queer cactus.
I have Stintzi's novel to read too, so I'm even more excited about that now.
August 11, 2023
I enjoyed some of the places this collection of existential poetry took me.
Not all of them, but some.
"I am trying to take my life personally but his skin is vacuum-sealed into my bones."
"...Wash your eyes out with Platonic shadows..."
Not all of them, but some.
"I am trying to take my life personally but his skin is vacuum-sealed into my bones."
"...Wash your eyes out with Platonic shadows..."
March 14, 2020
thank you, junebat 💜 i felt so lucky to fall into this web of simultaneous safety and excitement in reading this wonderful collection. stinzi’s prose is divine. they handle love, misery, deep loneliness, and the in betweens of being gender non-conforming in a way i’ve yet to see on a page and it was incredible.
reading this collection made me move slower, take stock of the mythology and mystery of my own and other’s queer-not-queer-enough bodies in such an invigorated way. amongst a pandemic, no less!
reading this collection made me move slower, take stock of the mythology and mystery of my own and other’s queer-not-queer-enough bodies in such an invigorated way. amongst a pandemic, no less!
November 11, 2021
LOVED!!!
October 13, 2020
Junebat is an exploration of gender through gripping and harrowing poetry. This is one of the best collections of poetry I've read in a long time and is THE best trans/non-binary poetry collection I've ever read. The journey from intense depression to acceptance in a gray New Jersey background is beautiful. I read the poem "To a Sub-Hudson Kindcore New Jersey Punk" and when I reached the end, I stopped and had to read it two more times. Stunning!
November 13, 2020
This took me a little time to get into, and I never could read many poems at a time, but it’s a very good collection that explores identity and struggles around understanding and accepting an identity.
March 18, 2021
This is one of the best collections I've ever read. It is so compelling, has a kind of engine inside of it that propels you to the next poem, which you can't say for many poetry collections. The imagery is wonderful and original. Please read it.
May 13, 2020
130520: quarantine buddy read #7 with keagan! this one really got to me.
March 15, 2025
Absolutely beautiful! This collection of poetry talking about the out of body experience talking about Trans and Non-Binary issues fascinating! Read this for my poetry class and this collection is a very enjoyable way to end the semester!
September 15, 2020
This collection is a powerful statement, an elusive ideal, and a melancholy experience, wrapped up into one. Stinzi obviously poured their soul into their work; it is haunting and personal.
May 8, 2020
Junebat is a book of free verse poetry, with an underlying narrative and connected themes between pieces concerning the author’s struggles to understand their gender identity. It’s presented in the context of metamorphosis––their life before, the change, and afterward, with one poem directly comparing this with a caterpillar changing into a moth––and it felt particularly fitting, especially when clearly expressing the idea that the “they” from before is the same as the “they” from after, but that the important change rather involves the ideas of self they possessed.
Stintzi references the work of Wallace Stevens in the notes, which makes me believe he’s a large influence on the author, though I’m largely unfamiliar with his poetry and, as such, I can’t really make deeper comparisons between the two. From reading the few Stevens poems directly referenced along with the corresponding Stintzi pieces, the biggest thing that struck me was how much more accessible Stintzi’s work is, though don’t take this to be either a mark of praise or criticism––merely a thought. Another poet I know better whom I was reminded of while reading Junebat, however, was Charles Bukowski, and this was likely for a couple of important reasons. Firstly, because of the gentle, understated writing, where meaning is built up over the course of the pieces without an overt forcing. Secondly, because the work of both poets comes across as so thoughtful and honest. Though, the Bukowski comparison only really feels apt when looking at poems that look at a more grounded, personal experience; throughout Junebat, we move between this style and one that looks at more abstract concepts, with a bigger focus on imagery and symbolism. Here, things are more reminiscent of the Beats––probably not a novel observation, due to Allen Ginsberg being mentioned in the notes.
Because neither style ever fully takes a back seat throughout the collection, it allows the author to comment on difficult concepts without ruining immersion. But it’s more than that: That Stintzi can even do this suggests their incredible ability of expression, and I really feel the need to stress that this is probably their biggest strength on display in Junebat. Because they really hit me with a visceral sense of the depression and isolation they went through that I can relate to, and they so effectively explored internal and external barriers that prevent us both from seeing the truth and from living it comfortably and happily once we find it. Junebat comes highly recommended.
Stintzi references the work of Wallace Stevens in the notes, which makes me believe he’s a large influence on the author, though I’m largely unfamiliar with his poetry and, as such, I can’t really make deeper comparisons between the two. From reading the few Stevens poems directly referenced along with the corresponding Stintzi pieces, the biggest thing that struck me was how much more accessible Stintzi’s work is, though don’t take this to be either a mark of praise or criticism––merely a thought. Another poet I know better whom I was reminded of while reading Junebat, however, was Charles Bukowski, and this was likely for a couple of important reasons. Firstly, because of the gentle, understated writing, where meaning is built up over the course of the pieces without an overt forcing. Secondly, because the work of both poets comes across as so thoughtful and honest. Though, the Bukowski comparison only really feels apt when looking at poems that look at a more grounded, personal experience; throughout Junebat, we move between this style and one that looks at more abstract concepts, with a bigger focus on imagery and symbolism. Here, things are more reminiscent of the Beats––probably not a novel observation, due to Allen Ginsberg being mentioned in the notes.
Because neither style ever fully takes a back seat throughout the collection, it allows the author to comment on difficult concepts without ruining immersion. But it’s more than that: That Stintzi can even do this suggests their incredible ability of expression, and I really feel the need to stress that this is probably their biggest strength on display in Junebat. Because they really hit me with a visceral sense of the depression and isolation they went through that I can relate to, and they so effectively explored internal and external barriers that prevent us both from seeing the truth and from living it comfortably and happily once we find it. Junebat comes highly recommended.
September 4, 2020
“What is a body? “
The question I return to endlessly reading Stintzi’s book, and which haunts me, like a koan, as I return to it over and again in the months since receiving it.
I savored this stunning book of poetry, absorbing each state along the Junebat’s coming into themselves - the depression, the doubt, the slow acceptance transforming towards a kind of joy.
The structure is admirably elegant - from the symmetrical form of the book and Junebat’s wings, the rorsharch-blot body at the center, echoed inside concrete visual poem pages & on the cover. This book is a body come alive as I find only poetry can do- fluttering open as I fly between the lines that swirl with recognition. The Junebat is a chrysalis unfolding from the center pages of the book - a fluid threshold of before and after - a “metamorphosis” & emergence, that always seems present inside a reader.
A cis-gender human myself, I nevertheless identified with the Junebat’s non-recognition of their body in the mirror, the need to be seen as one is at the core of all desires. And yet, I learned how one can also learn and begin to understand an “other self,” unlike “oneself,” as empathy invites us to do.
Towards the end the poet writes that “if you could see me you would see...a question without need of an answer....an end thriving. You would see how there’s always a way out of the body who swallowed you.”
I look forward to more questions reading alongside John’s journey as a writer.
The question I return to endlessly reading Stintzi’s book, and which haunts me, like a koan, as I return to it over and again in the months since receiving it.
I savored this stunning book of poetry, absorbing each state along the Junebat’s coming into themselves - the depression, the doubt, the slow acceptance transforming towards a kind of joy.
The structure is admirably elegant - from the symmetrical form of the book and Junebat’s wings, the rorsharch-blot body at the center, echoed inside concrete visual poem pages & on the cover. This book is a body come alive as I find only poetry can do- fluttering open as I fly between the lines that swirl with recognition. The Junebat is a chrysalis unfolding from the center pages of the book - a fluid threshold of before and after - a “metamorphosis” & emergence, that always seems present inside a reader.
A cis-gender human myself, I nevertheless identified with the Junebat’s non-recognition of their body in the mirror, the need to be seen as one is at the core of all desires. And yet, I learned how one can also learn and begin to understand an “other self,” unlike “oneself,” as empathy invites us to do.
Towards the end the poet writes that “if you could see me you would see...a question without need of an answer....an end thriving. You would see how there’s always a way out of the body who swallowed you.”
I look forward to more questions reading alongside John’s journey as a writer.
April 4, 2020
These poems are tremendous odes to despair and loneliness tinged with hope. I expected nothing less from Stintzi, and they sure did deliver
January 19, 2022
Excuse me, JES, who gave you permission to spy on my brain and write exquisite poetry about it?! I somehow simultaneously feel seen and attacked and unnerved by how closely this reflects my own struggle to confront my gender identity. I've been a broken record of "YES THIS" throughout the collection, but when it came to "America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel)", I felt seen down to the cerulean hair of defiance. This was a library borrow, but halfway through reading it, I went ahead and bought a copy to clutch to in case one day I wake up and think I only imagined this whole experience.
December 30, 2025
my heart is going to explode
July 13, 2020
I feel like I read this book in a minute, it was so good and I really couldn't bring myself to put it down.
More than anything, I am so thankful for my fellow Junebats in the world, and the amazing work they produce ❤️
More than anything, I am so thankful for my fellow Junebats in the world, and the amazing work they produce ❤️
December 11, 2020
Billy Ray Belcourt has it right - there is something about the term “junebat” that I think will linger in Canadian poetry for years to come. This is heartwrenching, beautiful poetry about coming into yourself, and I can’t wait to see what John Elizabeth Stintzi does next.
May 24, 2020
I was anxious to read this book, after finishing Vanishing Monuments, and was not disappointed. While Junebat is its own entity, Stintzi's cerebral prose is evident in their poetic form throughout this collection.
The element that sticks with me the most is that Stintzi has created a new mythology out of lived experience. While other poets concentrate on re-orienting and subverting classical myth, Stintzi investigates the seemingly novel Junebat. But what the reader comes to find, the Junebat may not be so novel after all, or truly a cryptid if we are being honest.
I may still be in the dark about what a Junebat actually is, bit I do feel a keener understanding of their nature.
The element that sticks with me the most is that Stintzi has created a new mythology out of lived experience. While other poets concentrate on re-orienting and subverting classical myth, Stintzi investigates the seemingly novel Junebat. But what the reader comes to find, the Junebat may not be so novel after all, or truly a cryptid if we are being honest.
I may still be in the dark about what a Junebat actually is, bit I do feel a keener understanding of their nature.
August 9, 2022
Sadly one of the most disappointing reads of the year for me. I really enjoyed Stinzi's novel Vanishing Monuments last summer and had been looking forward to reading this collection of poems for about a year now (partly because of the stunning cover!). What's sort of funny is that I found their novel to be distinctly dense and abstract in a way that I really enjoyed and was challenged by, and since those traits tend to be more prominent in poetry, I was really surprised at how transparent the writing was here. Unfortunately, this really didn't do much for me. While I appreciated Stinzi's exploration of their gender and did think the motif of the Junebat was intriguing enough, the poems as a whole fell pretty flat, largely because they didn't really read as poems. What this actually feels most like to me is a graphic novel, but there are no graphics accompanying the text. There's a much clearer narrative running through the collection than most poetry collections, following Stinzi's realization of their nonbinary gender identity, mental health challenges, and burgeoning romance with a woman going through a divorce. You really follow the trajectory of those three overlapping plotlines without much ambiguity or deviation. Almost all of them could work all the same as brief essays or journal entries (...or tumblr posts...) that are written with a particularly evocative, flowery vocabulary. However, they lack the sense of rhythm and general intentionality that I associate with poems. I'm obviously not the arbiter of poetry so I don't know if these are fair critiques, but ultimately these were just too straightforward and lacking in a certain artistry for me to appreciate much. I have a friend who I think will enjoy it a lot more, though, and am excited to pass it onto them.
September 22, 2022
I loved these poems and how deep they feel and I related to a lot of them. I also pictured ways in which others might relate to them personally or very personally.
But they were really good.
And they're profoundly emotional without being explicitly emotional, but sometimes also explaining in very few words how it feels to be unemotional or numb and not feel or not want to feel anything as I'm sure many people have felt, myself included.
Beautiful, captivating, interesting, emotional, gripping among so many other things. A definite recommend.
But they were really good.
And they're profoundly emotional without being explicitly emotional, but sometimes also explaining in very few words how it feels to be unemotional or numb and not feel or not want to feel anything as I'm sure many people have felt, myself included.
Beautiful, captivating, interesting, emotional, gripping among so many other things. A definite recommend.
June 29, 2020
Absolutely adored these poems and the idea of the Junebat as person/place/verb. Strong sense of Jersey overall in these poems.
February 13, 2021
I'm not deep enough for poetry, lol. I really liked "Evidence Disproving the Existence of a Junebat" though.
July 21, 2021
Loved this book. It dealt with gender confusion, loneliness, depression and love. Very creative and poignant.
September 22, 2021
Junebat is a gift that Stintzi gives to the world. It’s a brilliant collection of emotionally engaging, vulnerable, and liberatory poetry. It’s the kind of book you want to discuss after, so it’s an excellent choice for a poetry reading group!
September 26, 2023
Ugh❣️What a beautiful book to help our genderfucked hearts.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews