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Out of Order
A debut collection featuring formally diverse poems that address topics from misogyny and mental health to race and identity.
Alexis Sears’s debut collection, Out of Order , is a collage of unapologetic intimacy, risk-taking vulnerability, and unwavering candor. A biracial millennial woman, Sears navigates the challenges of growing out of girlhood and into womanhood with its potential dangers, interrogating the male gaze, beauty standards, and confidence and identity. Pop culture references run through the collection, with rock icons David Bowie and Prince and poets like Kenneth Koch offering windows into desire and adaptation. In these poems, Sears works through heavy topics, such as loneliness, mental illness, chronic pain, the legacies of race and racism, and the aftermath of a father’s suicide. As she writes, “I’m learning something every ravishing day / and none of it is easy.”
This young poet demonstrates an uncommon mastery of craft, writing in forms including the sonnet redoublé, sestina, canzone, and villanelle. With all her linguistic skills, Sears’s work remains approachable, offering readers a striking blend of honesty, humor, anguish, joy, and surprise. Drawing influence from contemporary poets like Mark Jarman, Erica Dawson, and Tiana Clark, Sears cuts a path of her own.
Out of Order was the 2021 winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize.
Alexis Sears’s debut collection, Out of Order , is a collage of unapologetic intimacy, risk-taking vulnerability, and unwavering candor. A biracial millennial woman, Sears navigates the challenges of growing out of girlhood and into womanhood with its potential dangers, interrogating the male gaze, beauty standards, and confidence and identity. Pop culture references run through the collection, with rock icons David Bowie and Prince and poets like Kenneth Koch offering windows into desire and adaptation. In these poems, Sears works through heavy topics, such as loneliness, mental illness, chronic pain, the legacies of race and racism, and the aftermath of a father’s suicide. As she writes, “I’m learning something every ravishing day / and none of it is easy.”
This young poet demonstrates an uncommon mastery of craft, writing in forms including the sonnet redoublé, sestina, canzone, and villanelle. With all her linguistic skills, Sears’s work remains approachable, offering readers a striking blend of honesty, humor, anguish, joy, and surprise. Drawing influence from contemporary poets like Mark Jarman, Erica Dawson, and Tiana Clark, Sears cuts a path of her own.
Out of Order was the 2021 winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize.
- GenresPoetry
104 pages, Paperback
Published March 29, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 3, 2023
this is a beautiful collection. i’m not all that great at writing form poetry but i certainly love reading it. the sonnets and sestina were two of my favorites. i’m glad my professor assigned this for us.
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August 22, 2022An eye-opening poetry collection about what it's like to be young, smart, and a woman coming of age in today's often brutal and unstable world (which is not quite the world of 50 or even 15 years ago, although there are, of course, causal links and resonances): the vulnerability despite the pressure to project strength, the self-questioning, the self-image issues, the destabilizing interactions with men who don't ask for consent and whose idea of an appropriate and viable come-on is "It's seven inches, easy. Wanna take a picture?" Suicidality -- in particular, how one navigates the loss of a father -- is a central theme. So is liminality (e.g., with respect to group identities such as racial categories). The voice is savvy and self-aware, and a golden-ratio-perfect balance between heavy and light is achieved as if by exquisite instinct. A tendency toward romanticism ("Once, in Maryland, // I saw a man so beautiful I burst into tears") is undercut by an equally insistent tendency to immediately deflate anything remotely resembling romanticism ("I don't think it really matters. / It was very long ago"). The dazzling maturity of Sears's craft -- e.g., her seemingly effortless dexterity with meter and rhyme, including many playful and witty slant rhymes and feminine rhymes; her easy triumph over breakneck-difficult inherited forms like the canzone and sonnet crown -- makes the reader feel they're in eminently capable hands.
As an example of all of the above, here is a link to the great terza rima poem "Hoop Earrings, Bare Legs": https://www.everseradio.com/hoop-earr...
As an example of all of the above, here is a link to the great terza rima poem "Hoop Earrings, Bare Legs": https://www.everseradio.com/hoop-earr...
April 27, 2022
This is a beautiful collection and an absolutely fitting choice for the Donald Justice award. It brims with intense personal energy, with breathtakingly honest talk about Sears's past and her present and her relationship mistakes; and yet the poems also manage to elegantly abide to the understood boundaries of various traditional forms. It is really an amazing dance Sears is able to do in this book. Or series of dances, really. It's both a confessional collection and a formal one. I can't remember when I've been so satisfied by a book of poetry. This book is a must read and a revelation. She might be my new favorite poet.
March 20, 2024
This melodious collection is my absolute favorite book of poems. Alexis Sears is a genius at meter and rhyme and weaves evocative vignettes together in complex forms which are breathtakingly beautiful and, at the same time, jarring. Although some of her poems address difficult issues such as her father’s suicide, the poems are not depressing, but are full of humor and consistently make clear that the best is yet to come.
April 15, 2022
“How can one put in order a life that has been disrupted by a father's suicide, the struggle to find racial identity, a maze of bad relationships, and the crippling specter of depression? This is the central question with which Alexis Sears grapples in her debut collection Out of Order.”
Read my full review in the April 2022 issue of The Rupture!
https://www.therupturemag.com/rupture...
Read my full review in the April 2022 issue of The Rupture!
https://www.therupturemag.com/rupture...
July 25, 2022
If this is where poetry is going, count me in. This book was suggested to me by a friend, and I couldn't be happier that I read it (in one day, might I add). The poet is young, but she writes with such wisdom, skill, and humor. And her knack for form! The sonnet crown for her father, for example, took my breath away! I cannot wait to see what Sears does next!!!!
August 7, 2024
I am new to reading most poetry- this was the perfect book to start. It has probably been said repeatedly in other reviews, but Alexis uses incredibly impressive and encapsulating imagery; she brings you into her stories as if you were there, or actually her. She is able to show incredible vulnerability, in a matter of fact way that is not asking for pity when describing several difficult ordeals.
More than that, I think this book is, as a whole, one of womanhood and its complexities. I highly recommend the read; I found it incredibly moving. Alexis has a way of eliciting strong emotions, which I think is a sign that her book does what ought to do when you read it. Will read again.
More than that, I think this book is, as a whole, one of womanhood and its complexities. I highly recommend the read; I found it incredibly moving. Alexis has a way of eliciting strong emotions, which I think is a sign that her book does what ought to do when you read it. Will read again.
August 8, 2022
Brilliant formal poetry, the angst of a young mixed-race woman from a dysfunctional family, rich in humor, irony and insights. Well-deserving of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize for 2022.
August 21, 2022
I am awed by Alexis Sears' ability to deliver her challenges, experiences, and vulnerability to the world. I have found much of modern poetry to be self-absorbed but the way Sears crafts language is a way I think many modern poets should follow. It creates just the right amount of curiosity and sympathy/empathy for readers.
Sears' poetry shows that not all good writing has to be about heavy topics such as the meaning of life and death, but also every day pleasures and events. Reading this book has been an enjoyable experience and I look forward to reading more poetry from Alexis Sears.
Sears' poetry shows that not all good writing has to be about heavy topics such as the meaning of life and death, but also every day pleasures and events. Reading this book has been an enjoyable experience and I look forward to reading more poetry from Alexis Sears.
January 31, 2022
ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
A great collection of poems, prose, and sonnets. Sears uses themes of family, grief, love, race, and death in her poems and creates an accessible space in which readers can explore these themes. Each poem is well written, and while I fond the emotion in her Sonnet Redouble for her father, I wasn't a fan of the rhymes used.
My favorite poems are: "Objet d'Art" and "Soup Over Salad."
[3.5 stars, rounded up]
A great collection of poems, prose, and sonnets. Sears uses themes of family, grief, love, race, and death in her poems and creates an accessible space in which readers can explore these themes. Each poem is well written, and while I fond the emotion in her Sonnet Redouble for her father, I wasn't a fan of the rhymes used.
My favorite poems are: "Objet d'Art" and "Soup Over Salad."
January 18, 2025
Out of Order is personal and universal. As the author poured her heart out and unfurled her soul through poetry, I couldn't help but feel my own spirit caught up in the pages, too.
It's two in the morning, yet I've felt compelled to finish reading and share my thoughts before sleep.
The author is a human being, unhidden, without the slightest trace of insincerity. Sears wields a piercing, intimate knowledge of words in the expression of her entire personhood, major griefs, little moments of light, lingering regrets, triumphant memories, moments of annoyance, waves of peace, pits of guilt, whispers of self-worth, overwhelming spirals of anxiety, soothing lulls of comfort.
She nurtures a limitless possibility for hope and love, sometimes difficult to see yet never unseeable. Despair, shame, and anger are found here, sure. Defiance and serenity, too. Everything.
This is beauty: expressing yourself exactly as you are, as you think you are, as you hope you aren't, as you wish you were, as you'd dream to be, all of the above.
We all struggle. We all have insecurities. We've all felt wronged, grieved, burdened, healed, excited, heartful, heartbroken. At the same time, we all represent a unique experience, a distinct perspective, an unmistakable individuality forged from adversities and successes. If only more of us were courageous enough to share these diverse vulnerabilities we experience as life sails along, the world might enjoy a more empathetic glow of togetherness.
I've cried in a Prius. More than once. Perhaps some potential readers out there have not. I know Peck Park. I learned how to swim there. I also know most of the world didn't (that would be a fairly large pool). I remember the Axe-reeking boys and ripped Abercrombie jeans of the late 2000s. Not everyone was that age at that time. I never sneakily took a handful of Craisins from my roommate at night, though I definitely used their shampoo once or twice, and still think about it to this day.
Regardless, it's okay if you don't relate to the exact circumstances. That's what's so great about this book. Each poem, even when it dives into those specifics, remains tethered to eternal messages and down-to-earth ideas. If you've ever had a pulse, something in Out of Order will resonate with you.
I don't wish to spoil this thing, though I do need to share some lines:
- "Maybe I thought this was what I deserved."
(Hell nah, my heart was on the floor, tears in my eyes)
- "All I know is what I don't."
(That's so real right there)
- "At what cruel cost do we conform?"
(Boggles the mind)
- "Years later, I felt better, though I always worried I'd get sad again."
(Felt that)
- "I've been called an old soul. I've been called childish. I've been called a doll, a babe, a talent, a b*tch. I don't mind...Life's a golden chain around our necks of hurting others, being hurt, and back."
(Forgive me for skipping a tiny bit there, loved the Chips Ahoy moment, trust me)
- "I've always loved what cannot love me back."
(Really felt that)
- "Remember that your favorite author packed meat for a living. Remember that you were not born lonely."
(Upton Sinclair? I'm genuinely curious)
- "The word 'joy' covers my skin like swelling bug bites."
(Damn. We spend so much time shaking, sulking, reminding ourselves it's okay not to be okay as we brave the pain. Then, one random day, we actually are okay for once, and we're like wtf is going on, this is different, ok, I kinda like it, I mean, I've still got stuff on my mind, but it's alright)
- All of September
Most of these quotes are from the second half of the book. I could keep going, delve into the first half...but we'd be here all night.
Just read the book. Read the book. I hope it speaks so sweetly and fervently to you as it did to me, and I say that in the name of honesty, not flattery. I will cherish this forever.
It's two in the morning, yet I've felt compelled to finish reading and share my thoughts before sleep.
The author is a human being, unhidden, without the slightest trace of insincerity. Sears wields a piercing, intimate knowledge of words in the expression of her entire personhood, major griefs, little moments of light, lingering regrets, triumphant memories, moments of annoyance, waves of peace, pits of guilt, whispers of self-worth, overwhelming spirals of anxiety, soothing lulls of comfort.
She nurtures a limitless possibility for hope and love, sometimes difficult to see yet never unseeable. Despair, shame, and anger are found here, sure. Defiance and serenity, too. Everything.
This is beauty: expressing yourself exactly as you are, as you think you are, as you hope you aren't, as you wish you were, as you'd dream to be, all of the above.
We all struggle. We all have insecurities. We've all felt wronged, grieved, burdened, healed, excited, heartful, heartbroken. At the same time, we all represent a unique experience, a distinct perspective, an unmistakable individuality forged from adversities and successes. If only more of us were courageous enough to share these diverse vulnerabilities we experience as life sails along, the world might enjoy a more empathetic glow of togetherness.
I've cried in a Prius. More than once. Perhaps some potential readers out there have not. I know Peck Park. I learned how to swim there. I also know most of the world didn't (that would be a fairly large pool). I remember the Axe-reeking boys and ripped Abercrombie jeans of the late 2000s. Not everyone was that age at that time. I never sneakily took a handful of Craisins from my roommate at night, though I definitely used their shampoo once or twice, and still think about it to this day.
Regardless, it's okay if you don't relate to the exact circumstances. That's what's so great about this book. Each poem, even when it dives into those specifics, remains tethered to eternal messages and down-to-earth ideas. If you've ever had a pulse, something in Out of Order will resonate with you.
I don't wish to spoil this thing, though I do need to share some lines:
- "Maybe I thought this was what I deserved."
(Hell nah, my heart was on the floor, tears in my eyes)
- "All I know is what I don't."
(That's so real right there)
- "At what cruel cost do we conform?"
(Boggles the mind)
- "Years later, I felt better, though I always worried I'd get sad again."
(Felt that)
- "I've been called an old soul. I've been called childish. I've been called a doll, a babe, a talent, a b*tch. I don't mind...Life's a golden chain around our necks of hurting others, being hurt, and back."
(Forgive me for skipping a tiny bit there, loved the Chips Ahoy moment, trust me)
- "I've always loved what cannot love me back."
(Really felt that)
- "Remember that your favorite author packed meat for a living. Remember that you were not born lonely."
(Upton Sinclair? I'm genuinely curious)
- "The word 'joy' covers my skin like swelling bug bites."
(Damn. We spend so much time shaking, sulking, reminding ourselves it's okay not to be okay as we brave the pain. Then, one random day, we actually are okay for once, and we're like wtf is going on, this is different, ok, I kinda like it, I mean, I've still got stuff on my mind, but it's alright)
- All of September
Most of these quotes are from the second half of the book. I could keep going, delve into the first half...but we'd be here all night.
Just read the book. Read the book. I hope it speaks so sweetly and fervently to you as it did to me, and I say that in the name of honesty, not flattery. I will cherish this forever.
March 4, 2024
Funny, jaunty, clever--experimental without being annoying, rigorous without being uptight--Alexis Sears is one of those poets to watch you're always hearing about, and in this case you heard right. Honest, anxious, and self-deprecating, she nonetheless finds a way to write about life as if it's something to enjoy, rather than to poetically bemoan. As a rule, I hate feel-good poetry, but Sears' wicked, joyful poems make me feel good in spite of myself. Out of Order is a book that will remind you why you used to like poetry, before that mean English teacher/debate team bro/MPDexG ruined it for you in high school.
March 15, 2025
Sears writes with a rawness and description of confusion which is both accessible and still punchy for the lost young woman exiting her girlhood, navigating the woes of love, lust, loss, and life in liminality. While some of the pop culture references did not resonate with me as the took me out of moments which aimed to be en media res, I enjoyed the contemporary nature of the content. Sears touches on the process of self-discovery in constructing one’s self-esteem, praise, belonging in absence of a father figure. I am impressed by her ability to fill as many pages as she does (84) with varied descriptions of cluelessness.
April 19, 2025
This collection breathes voice and humor and sass into old forms: villanelles, sonnets, sestinas. As representative, take this section from the opening poem:
"The sky is prettiest on sad days, way
too beautiful to understand this shit.
My former self has drifted miles away,
though sometimes it returns. It's so cliche
to have some loud internal screaming fit.
I'm learning something every ravishing day"
The speaker finds repetition, rhyme, and form to be sanity-making containers for speaking about her father's suicide, her vulnerabilities, and her epic hair. The poems are reflective, funny, and musical, bringing narrative anecdotes a deep tune and a clear style.
"The sky is prettiest on sad days, way
too beautiful to understand this shit.
My former self has drifted miles away,
though sometimes it returns. It's so cliche
to have some loud internal screaming fit.
I'm learning something every ravishing day"
The speaker finds repetition, rhyme, and form to be sanity-making containers for speaking about her father's suicide, her vulnerabilities, and her epic hair. The poems are reflective, funny, and musical, bringing narrative anecdotes a deep tune and a clear style.
March 13, 2024
Very few poets have both talent and a distinctive voice. Sears is one of those. I feel like I’m living an Indi flick while roving her verse. She’s authentically soul searching, quirky, open, honest and honors craft with a talent for form. But because of her hunt for truth and discovery, for authentic joy and disturbance, she isn’t reliant upon form, which also sets her apart. Too many poets write minutia in form and thinks it means something. Not so with Sears. The form is simply the vehicle driving her lyric verve. She’s both an old soul and a relevant one.
February 20, 2024
In OUT OF ORDER, Alexis Sears marries traditional forms with a fully modern voice - a great voice: pitch-perfect, inviting, and often wonderfully comic. A beautiful debut.
March 4, 2024
genius.
January 9, 2025
one of the best poets writing!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews