In her striking debut, Laurie Ogden wrestles with what it means to define ourselves as human. From the seeming infinity of matryoshka dolls to Maud Wagner and Latrice Royale, Humaning moves through a storm of conflicting notions of womanhood, the body, and difference. Sometimes open and playful, sometimes dark and surreal, the poems offer up self-authorship and anthropomorphism as tools for transformation in the aftermath of trauma, to reset the roots of relationships, and search for the humanity each of us carries inside.

In her striking debut, Laurie Ogden wrestles with what it means to define ourselves as human. From the seeming infinity of matryoshka dolls to Maud Wagner and Latrice Royale, Humaning moves through a storm of conflicting notions of womanhood, the body, and difference. Sometimes open and playful, sometimes dark and surreal, the poems offer up self-authorship and anthropomorphism as tools for transformation in the aftermath of trauma, to reset the roots of relationships, and search for the humanity each of us carries inside.