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Burials
The stories in Despy Boutris’ Burials represent a contemporary queering of the “rural Gothic”: a coming-of-age narrative that interrogates familial relationships, abuse, grief, guilt, trauma, and sexuality, in a pastoral landscape that can be tender and nostalgic and yet threatening underneath. The trials and tribulations of girlhood in a small town are complicated further as the narrator explores her sapphic desires—but what begins with secrecy in the narrator transforms into a space of solace and safety, and a refusal to be silenced or ignored within a heteronormative society. With rich and emotive prose that carries the sonic texture and rhythmic cadence of poetry, Despy Boutris expertly weaves a powerful account of the ache and awe of adolescence.
Includes the stories “Ars Poetica,” “Summer’s Lessons,” “Drought,” “Burials,” “Rewriting History,” “Forest Elegy,” “Tryst,” “What My Parents Taught Me,” “Portrait of an Alcoholic,” “Departures,” “Dinner Guest,” “Spring,” “Psalm with Passing Train,” “What I Want,” and “Note to Self”
Includes the stories “Ars Poetica,” “Summer’s Lessons,” “Drought,” “Burials,” “Rewriting History,” “Forest Elegy,” “Tryst,” “What My Parents Taught Me,” “Portrait of an Alcoholic,” “Departures,” “Dinner Guest,” “Spring,” “Psalm with Passing Train,” “What I Want,” and “Note to Self”
- GenresPoetry
18 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 26, 2022
Read this in one setting and in one word: SUPERB!
June 8, 2022
So elated to discover this treasure by Boutris! Here are some kickass quotes:
"Because there was no way to describe the color of the sky."
"I remembered our family history: saw the holes the photos hid–the places the plaster had caved in like jack-o-lanterns by Thanksgiving. The places my father's fists hit, missing my mother's head by mere inches. I remembered the shouts, her folded face."
"We learned the hollow of a throat is maybe also heaven, and a boy's lips are good for so much more than just keeping his mouth shut."
"That was only a year after my sister drowned, but this time, the death wasn't my fault. Right?"
"Her eyes were Texas apart, and her flat feet did her no favors. When her bloated body finally floated to the surface, I learned the truth: life is lethal. So is death. So is the water we want. I've learned to live with it."
GET A COPY! OF EVERYTHING BOUTRIS WRITES! DEEP DEEP WATERS! LOVE!
"Because there was no way to describe the color of the sky."
"I remembered our family history: saw the holes the photos hid–the places the plaster had caved in like jack-o-lanterns by Thanksgiving. The places my father's fists hit, missing my mother's head by mere inches. I remembered the shouts, her folded face."
"We learned the hollow of a throat is maybe also heaven, and a boy's lips are good for so much more than just keeping his mouth shut."
"That was only a year after my sister drowned, but this time, the death wasn't my fault. Right?"
"Her eyes were Texas apart, and her flat feet did her no favors. When her bloated body finally floated to the surface, I learned the truth: life is lethal. So is death. So is the water we want. I've learned to live with it."
GET A COPY! OF EVERYTHING BOUTRIS WRITES! DEEP DEEP WATERS! LOVE!
March 11, 2023
“Sometimes everything turns to tinder, kindling to start a fire, names of the dead rotting on your tongue.” • words that burrow inside your bones and make a home
July 3, 2022
Haunting, tender, a book for poets, for lovers of words.
May 4, 2023
such a delightfully profound, moving collection i inhaled in one sitting. i was going to list my favorites titles from the collection, but realized it would consist of me just listing the entire table of contents. each story works and moves me individually, but also collectively as a whole piece together. despy boutris is such a magnetic young talent. the way she molds words to great moods and evoke visceral emotions in such short pieces of work is astonishing and i am in complete awe.
if i absolutely had to pick a top 3 it would be ‘tryst,’ ‘spring,’ and ‘psalm with passing train’ (in order of appearance in the collection because i don’t think i have it in me to try to rank them i love them each so much).
my favorite line: ”I inhale your hair and think maybe I’ve finally found a suitable death.”
cannot wait to read what boutris publishes in the future. thankful to bull city press for publishing their quarterly inch fiction series and platforming diverse, experimental, fresh, upcoming voices. truly obsessed with the series, and also thanks to rita bunny for recommending bone house by k-ming chang (sapphic wuthering heights retelling)to me which was the catalyst that got me on the bull city press website where i found burials.
i also think this collection would make a great indie film adaptation. it’s sundance written all over it in the best way.
if i absolutely had to pick a top 3 it would be ‘tryst,’ ‘spring,’ and ‘psalm with passing train’ (in order of appearance in the collection because i don’t think i have it in me to try to rank them i love them each so much).
my favorite line: ”I inhale your hair and think maybe I’ve finally found a suitable death.”
cannot wait to read what boutris publishes in the future. thankful to bull city press for publishing their quarterly inch fiction series and platforming diverse, experimental, fresh, upcoming voices. truly obsessed with the series, and also thanks to rita bunny for recommending bone house by k-ming chang (sapphic wuthering heights retelling)to me which was the catalyst that got me on the bull city press website where i found burials.
i also think this collection would make a great indie film adaptation. it’s sundance written all over it in the best way.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews