RedRaw by Ali Meyung

RedRaw is a sacred letter to the body, touched by scalpels, scar tissue, retrograde menstruation, tiny stars of elliptical light. We see the body in its deepest color / stark bare. The fascia scraped thin / down to its riddled core. But for every “ritual wound,” there’s also translation: a grandmother’s “sovereign womb” as constellation. A vessel for matrilineal wonder. This work is ovumnal, prompting your “body to stop short / & feel the vibrations of underworld rivers & hear chthonic deity whispering.” A murmur, a howl, the sounds of honed blade at the threshold. Keen!

–Michelle Naka Pierce, author of Continuous Frieze Bordering Red

RedRaw is a site of changing encounters begging a reader to shed their skin. Beginning at the site of the navel, Ali Meyung unravels an ovum umbilical cord from maternal grandmother to Marilyn Monroe, to Inanna, and finally to Salomé. Through etymology, visual poetry, and an attunement to the sonic quality of the female body, this collection creates a new visual language for endometriosis, a red constellation of how we encounter uterine pain. Dirt, blood, popular culture, this book is a dark delight.

–Amy Bobeda, Red Memory