Confirmation Bias

by Ivanna Baranova

Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret new evidence in support of one's existing beliefs or theories. In her stunning debut poetry collection, Ivanna Baranova excavates notions of evidence, existence, and resiliency in an attempt to transcend the beliefs that demand our psychic reproduction. Desire, affect, anger, and healing collide in Baranova’s metaphysical observations of her lived experiences―feminine conditioning, racialization, Slavic and Latinx diaspora, experimental therapy, and nausea under capitalist hegemony. Whether through the lens of astrology or philosophy, algorithms or substance use, Confirmation Bias considers the obstacles of being, relating, and rebuilding in the face of sociocultural fragmentation and imminent global collapse. The resulting poems are bright with insight, crackling with humour and idiom, and burning with unforgettable intellect, authenticity, and compassion.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2019

About the author

Ivanna Baranova is a poet, writer, editor, and artist from the Pacific Northwest, currently living in Los Angeles. She is the author of Threshold (forthcoming, Inpatient Press, 2024), Continuum (Metatron Press, 2023), and Confirmation Bias (Metatron Press, 2019), and is the former Creative Communications Coordinator at the Poetry Project. Her work has appeared in April April, Cixous72, DIAGRAM, Los Angeles Review of Books, Newest York, and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Madeleine · Rating 5 out of 5]

exceptional -- the language invites you to sit with feeling and teases out the complexities, with such careful language, of desire, loss, identity, place. conversational x spiritual. i wanted to both sit with these lines, the intimacy they tease w/the reader, and yet poured through the collection in one night.
some favorites: alarm, afterlife, water signs, powerade, color therapy, confirmation bias

[Delia Rainey · Rating 5 out of 5]

when i read this perfect book, i am rushing thru a pit of memories and i am falling into a mint-colored river, but i am also yelling into these containers that i accept that they've happened and their absence is ok ~ when i read this perfect book, i feel the light and the search for it, til we all take a nap in the warm spot it provides ~ "i have wanted to be honest just not confessional i guess it's time i try"

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

thought-provoking pieces that pierce and i underlined a lot then had to stop to not underline everything or anything; (i think) most of them (slash everything slash anything) are really about love

[Mic Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

will be making everyone read this thank you very much

[Carolyn DeCarlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confirmation Bias wasn’t my favorite read, but I would never discourage anyone from picking it up. Ivanna’s background and perspective are unusual, and worth hearing. The style of the poems involve short lines and philosophical topics, many of which were too theoretical for me to feel any deep connection to them. I found her most grounded poems — some about swimming, some about love — to be the most accessible and engaging. Some of her long poems began in a reality I could connect with but floated off into loftier territory or diverged at a sharp angle from where they had begun in a way that derailed me. I found myself highlighting short passages and phrases rather than marking whole poems as favorites. It is clear Ivanna has a brilliant mind, and I think some of it was just wasted on me. Her writing reminded me that some people do drugs recreationally, which was something I’d genuinely forgotten about. Metatron has come out with another banger in this book, and it sits well with the other beautiful works this press has produced. I just think maybe I’m not their ideal reader... though that won’t stop me from trying!

[Bry · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I would recommend any poetry book to anybody who may not necessarily even read much poetry, it would be this one. It has stuck with me since reading. "Funds" in particular is now stuck inside of me forever.

[Anne Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iridescent language!

[Shaheer Ashraf]

Hh