girl poems by anna k. crooks

Available for preorder NOW. Place time-sensitive holiday orders BY DECEMBER 15.

BRUISER is excited to announce the release of girl poems, the debut collection from Baltimore poet Anna K. Crooks and first volume in the BRUISER Zines series. Printed and assembled in Baltimore, this limited edition zine includes 24 previously unpublished poems.

“i am god’s little mouth,” proclaims the speaker of Anna K. Crooks’ “girl poems” — equal parts boast, giddy confession, and self-deprecating meme. Each poem in this bright, slippery collection is an intimate broadcast, a tiny flare of holy fire in a soft-plastic world. Sardonic but never mean, these verses evoke today’s vernacular of internal doom-scroll (“my kink is clocking in”) while reaching for the divine — and finding it, in love songs that won’t be written, obscene ‘90s toys (“butthole tubeys/ filled with water and glitter”), and the moon, who gives “me one more reason to live (that bitch!!).” Each time this voice claims a self — gussied up as “the poet,” “lucky girl,” “the last living shania twain” — it soon shimmies out of the costume, revealing a soul tending to compassion both grimy and grand. “girl poems” tingles with human electricity, like a current passed between friends’ bodies — one finger touching the metal, one finger touching you.

- Katie Moulton, author of Dead Dad Club: On Grief & Tom Petty

anna k. crooks is a poet. she lives in baltimore, maryland. she is a one-time co-host of tender f.m. and curating member of open space. she loves hugs and holding hands and kissing her boyfriend, hanging out with her best friends, and listening to kpop. she grew up in suburban ohio, playing soccer, going to the mall with her best friends, and listening to pop punk. she never grew out of loving amphibians. she is just like the other girls.