Winner of the 2024 Trio Award, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet explores landscapes of grief, desire, and identity. How does memory collapse time? In what ways do mourning and longing echo each other? What violence persists beneath narrative and aesthetic surfaces, upholding systems of belief and power? This debut poetry collection revolves around imagination as an act of resilience and rebellion. Blankenhorn's speaker communes with dead beloveds while buttering toast, petting dogs, kissing lovers, looking at art, holding hands with friends, and traversing cities and deserts. The beauty and comedy of daily life becomes a provocation into nonlinearity, sexuality, family history, and multiracial selfhood. Slipping between exterior and interior with an unflinching gaze, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet invites us to embrace the impossible complexity of human experience.
