Daughter of Man

L. J. Sysko is the author of the chapbook Battledore. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. She lives in Delaware.

“L. J. Sysko’s The Daughter of Man is a marvel in so many ways: its chiseled, rambunctious music; its precise and haunting images; its unspooling, rhizomatic similes; its almost voracious but somehow also sort of playful learnedness; its searing critiques of power; in how goddamn funny it can be—I mean, it’s kind of a clinic in irony; in the biting observation (of self and other)—while also, always, tethered to heartbreak and longing and hurt and change. All of which is ultimately to say: what a beautiful book."—Ross Gay, author of Be Holding"There’s a certain slant of Brain to the effervescent, scintillating poems of L. J. Sysko, a deep glee and playful seriousness that make this work among the most Original being written. Musically audacious, these poems rove through the lives of the poet, rethinking womanhood in One Day at a Time as adeptly as in Greek myth. With the verve of Alice Fulton and the panache of Gerald Stern, Sysko keens into the canon, a welcome voice. Sing, indeed, heavenly muse."——Alan Michael Parker, author of The Age of Discovery"With electric nerve, L. J. Sysko’s savvy and often comic poems careen through American pop culture and the suburban world that infantilizes and traps women. Sysko fixes her gaze on adolescent girls and their trajectory into selfhood—a path that takes them through sexual shame and erasure, and then, as they age, into defiance. Is it too much to also ask for wisdom? Not for this poet. She wields her sharpened pen and dexterous music, swinging from irony to grief to knowledge. This is the voice of a fully embodied poet."—Anne Marie Macari, author of Heaven Beneath"Subversive, flinty, tightly wound, these poems spring open to throttle shame. Sysko takes iconic references and tag lines from common culture, exposes them to her wily intelligence, and gives us all something new to shout about. Her characters spin through time, never needing to be saved—they’re excellent swimmers in the ocean of language at every age. This is a marvelous adventure of a book."—Lee Upton, author of The Day Every Day IsSysko’s witty debut skewers the patriarchy in poems that explore and upend the various societal roles women are expected to play. In sections named after stages of the female life cycle, such as ‘The Maiden’ or ‘The Crone,’ Sysko uses her impressive observational gifts and knack for finding the humor in the absurd to deconstruct stereotypes and present more authentic ways of expressing womanhood. … This whip-smart collection is a playful celebration of feminine power."—Publisher’s Weekly, February 2023