More Sure

by A. Light Zachary

A book of poems and augmentations, recording instances of love, self-realization, and recovery in non-binary, queer, and autistic lives. 

In their stunning debut collection, A. Light Zachary draws power from a vision of life―especially queer and neurodivergent life―as a journey of continuous self-realization. These poems record the experience of locating oneself over and over again, within gender, language, family, labour, sexuality, fear, and love.   Reaching back to claim queer space in the oldest Western canon, Zachary interrupts famous quotations from ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, what advice might Juvenal or Seneca have handed down to non-binary citizens? Elsewhere, in concise and fluid verses that draw from punk rock and quantum physics, they ground the work firmly in the present.  invade the alien. Evade with the coyote. These poems propose a certain in these unending journeys of discovery and alienation, “we become more sure of who we are than you.”

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Queer, Canada, Transgender, Queer Lit

112 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2023

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uh wow that was a lot more resonant than I was expecting and I had to immediately go out and buy a copy and now I will annotate it in pencil and send it to my cross-country bestie. Halp.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous and very thought provoking. If you're looking for a poetry collection rhat explores gender this is it~

[Mery ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really impressive work, centering around themes of identity, gender, language, survival, and love. Zachary draws upon inspirations as diverse as Plato's dialogues and the everyday minutiae of nonbinary life to build a robust personal mythology-- a favorite recurring image was that of the coyote. The final theme is a gorgeous manifesto: "They who never / change, / what can they / know / for sure."

[Sam Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

AGH! Thank you, Arsenal Pulp Press and A. Light Zachary; you guys are absolute gems, and I am so in love with this piece of literature and will forever cherish it.

Our main narrator talks of the stressors that come with merging into the real world of bigots and zealots after transitioning out of their dead skin and name and being into the one that feels like home. So many times, I wanted to grab this narrator and pull them into a hug, taking away their pains and perils, so they wouldn't have to feel such hate and rejection.

Regardless of who they love, people are people and deserve love and care unconditionally. I hurt knowing we live in a world where groups of people are ostracized for who they are. More Sure hits shelves in the states on April 24, 2023, and I recommend everyone picks up a copy.

[naviya]

- this was not for me! i don't like desire or second person/ "you poems"
- i think that the collection felt very surface level? and sort of gimmicky(?) in it's exploration of nb and queer identity
- some of the forms also seemed silly (not in a fun way)
- i think it wasn't good or bad! just not for me!

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems on queerness and neurodivergence, on knowing the ever-changing self. A. Light Zachary speaks to moments of knowing and unknowing (and the constancy of moving from one to the other)—from the beds of lovers, to performances under a mother’s gaze, to the shadows of expectations unfulfilled / never to be fulfilled, to the refusal of the coyote to be caged. In these poems: to home is to know the home may move, may change, may take a long time to come to be, may be torn down by those who fear the home-builders. And yet, as the speaker says, “every time I build a house, I build it better.” They lean into society’s fear of mutability, face it head-on: “I contain / multitudes. Fear me.”

Some of my favorite poems. “Friday nights at the non-binary drive-in,” where the speaker imagines movies on time travel, on body snatchers, on community that speak to queer experiences. “To recite each morning,” where the speaker shares a tender mantra: “Unmask myself. / Unman myself. / Unname myself. / Unchain myself” and ending simply with “Free myself.”

[Thanks to the publisher for the gifted copy!]

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm admittedly a bit biased, as I was lucky enough to edit the book for Arsenal Pulp. That said, Light has been a favorite poet of mine for a very long time, and this book shows the full breadth of their power. These poems are ferocious, funny, loving, and delightfully gnomic—everything I want in a collection is here, in equal parts. This is a debut collection not to be missed.

[Loocuh Frayshure · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a hell of a kick to it when it fires on all cylinders which is much, much more common than not. Can’t say I loved every poem, but the breadth of A Light Zachary’s literary knowledge is awesome in the old sense of the word. Some great lines, interesting images, nice turns of phrase, etc. Sometimes a little hokey feeling, but rare to encounter poems that aren’t in any given collection.

[Elliott James Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite stunning collection of poetry.
I didn't find all of it super accessible but that's more likely my issue rather than the poets, and it means I did go back to it.
However poems like 'Transgender Dysphoria Blues' hit just right.
Like a home run.
I think in the future this will likely be hailed as a masterpiece.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite poetry collection quite a while

[I̴̖̠̝͎̭̳͗̀̔̈̈́͘͜ͅs̵͚̩̐̆å̴̱͠b̷̭̜̯͈̣̳̎̔͗̿̒̀̇̅͠͝e̶̩̻̦͖̼͌̈̚l̷̤͇͉͕̯̭͔̀̿à̸̰̥͙̱̩̭͛͐̐͆̀̀̓ · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was too smart for me, but the parts I got where really good

[Passant Eltarek · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*

[Elizabeth Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping poems, almost all explicitly queer; my favorite poems were Some You’ll Love ___ Zachary, Someday I’ll Love ___ Zachary, and To recite each morning