summonings

by Raena Shirali

Indebted to the docupoetics tradition, Raena Shirali’s summonings investigates the ongoing practice of witch (“daayan”) hunting in India. Here, poems interrogate the political implications & shortcomings of writing Subaltern personae while acknowledging the author’s Westernized positionality. Continuing to explore multi-national and intersectional concerns around identity raised in her debut collection, Shirali asks how first- & second-generation immigrants reconcile the self with the lineages that shape it, wondering aloud about those lineages’ relationships to misogyny & violence. These precarious poems explore how antiquated & existing norms surrounding female mysticism in India & America inform each culture’s treatment of women. As Jericho Brown wrote of Shirali’s poetics in GILT, her “comment on culture, on identity, on justice is her comment on poetry.” summonings is comment on power & patriarchy, on authorial privilege & the shifting role of witness, &, ultimately, on an ethical poetics, grounded in the inevitable failure to embody the Other.

Genres: Poetry

122 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2022

About the author

Raena Shirali is the author of two collections of poetry. Her first book, GILT (YesYes Books, 2017), won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and her second, summonings (Black Lawrence Press, 2022), won the 2021 Hudson Prize. Winner of a Pushcart Prize & a former Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University, Shirali is also the recipient of prizes and honors from VIDA, Gulf Coast, Boston Review, & Cosmonauts Avenue. Formerly a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine, Shirali now serves as Faculty Advisor for Folio—a literary magazine dedicated to publishing works by undergraduate students at the national level. She holds an MFA in Poetry from The Ohio State University and is an Assistant Professor of English at Holy Family University. The Indian American poet was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and now lives in Philadelphia.

Reviews

[Lizzie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of poetry by Raena Shirali. Shirali focused on the ongoing practice of witch hunting in India and reflected beautifully and at length on the ways in which identity and background guide our lives. Specifically, Shirali considered how immigrants reconcile their backgrounds with their present nationality and reflects on how these identities relate to gender-based violence. The treatment of women in both India and America were explored, as well as the ways in which a woman of Indian descent is treated in America. I enjoyed this collection a lot and would highly recommend it.

** Thanks so much to NetGalley, Raena Shirali, and Black Lawrence Press for this ARC! Summonings is available as of October 28th, 2022! **

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a compelling description and did some really clever things with space and voice, but I did not feel as drawn to it as I wanted to be. I think it is because I needed something more--a kind of thread, which was partly there with the quotes from the accused between sections, but I found those quotes more compelling than the accompanying poetry at times.

PS: I am having difficulty signing in to GoodReads due to the Facebook connectivity error, but I will put this review onto GoodReads as soon as I can log in again.

[Carly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book--and I don't say that lightly. The book engages with craft on all levels, from the poems' own craft to rumination on the practice of persona poems within themselves. It's a book that I'm so excited to share with students and reread.

[Lone Star Literary Life · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Dede Fox for Lone Star Literary Life.